Nodos Luporum
by ArbiterDeliberata
Summary: After admitting their feelings for each other at the end of fifth year, Albus and Scorpius explore an exciting, sensual new level in their relationship. But when a fellow classmate casts an experimental spell on them, the boys are forced to deal with a lasting consequence of their Transfiguration. (M/M pairing - Scorbus)
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** Nodos Luporum  
 **Author:** ArbiterDeliberata  
 **Fandom:** Harry Potter

 **Pairing:** Albus Potter/Scorpius Malfoy (Scorbus)  
 **Rating:** MA  
 **Summary:** After admitting their feelings for each other at the end of fifth year, the boys explore an exciting, sensual new level in their relationship. But when a fellow classmate casts an experimental spell on them, the boys are forced to deal with a lasting consequence of their Transfiguration.

 **Warnings:** This story will contain adult language and graphic sexual content between underage (16-year-old) boys.

 **Additional Notes:** Lodos Luporum is Latin for "The Knots of Wolves".

 **CHAPTER 1**

Have you ever had someone that you went through crazy shit with? Someone who understood your fears and weaknesses and stuck by you anyway? That's what I had in Scorpius. Although over the last couple years, things seemed to have changed for us.

After the chaotic events with Delphi and nearly breaking the world with our time-travel escapades, Scorpius and I weren't entirely sure how to move forward. We were still best friends, but we'd gone through something nobody else had. It had fostered a level of emotional intimacy that was new and honestly a little frightening for both of us. It gave us a deep level of trust, but our bond got more confusing. Was a lingering touch on the arm just getting attention to point something out; in class? Or did it also remind him of the touches we shared in the church as we were hiding during the fight against Delphi? Was it…more than that? We became, for the first time in our relationship, completely unsure.

Everything came to a head in May of our fifth year. It had been a particularly rough week leading up to our O.W.L. Exams. The Common Room had been empty except for the two of us late on a Tuesday night. I had become terribly frustrated with my Charms work; a number of spells just weren't clicking for me. With another failed attempt at an Invisibility Charm, I stomped off up the stairs, leaving poor, tired Scorpius, probably more exhausted from trying to help me understand the work than from an actual lack of sleep, sitting by the fire with our books and parchment spread around him, looking dejected.

Guilt gnawed at me. _Great job, Albus. Ditch your best friend who's trying to help you. Have you really become that dick?_

Ashamed of my pouting and subsequent outburst, I realized I wasn't just frustrated by the work, but by the change in our relationship and the constant flare between us that neither of us could explain or wanted to confront.

I took a deep breath and counted to ten. Then I turned on my heel and walked straight back. There he was, still slumped in his chair, hair glowing magnificently in the firelight. He looked up when he saw me re-enter and managed to look heartbreakingly apologetic, like my stomping off was somehow his fault.

"Albus, I think you've got the wand work and theory down perfectly, it's just your focus that –"

I knew it would have been politer to let him finish his train of thought, but I couldn't help it. I was pent-up and selfish and greedy right then. I strode to his chair until my knees hit the front of his seat and bent over to him, then cupped his face and pulled him into a kiss.

I didn't realize it would _sear_ the way it did. I didn't anticipate the relieved sigh that would escape…somebody. To this day, I still don't know if it was him or me.

Neither of us bothered with chaste or slow, the second either of us realized that _yes, this is happening_ , we were suddenly all hands and tongues and happy fucking whining. I don't recall moving to straddle his lap and fist his hair, I don't recall him pulling my shirt from my trousers and dragging his blunt nails down my back, but I do recall that when we finally pulled back several minutes later, we were both hard. We were panting and wide-eyed, completely dumbstruck. Our relationship had been through so much in the last couple years, with the most recent months existing in an irritatingly nebulous realm of _are we more than this?_

So there had been our answer. Right there, alone in the Common Room, surrounded by a heat we couldn't just blame on the fire. I wasn't sure who confessed first but we'd spent the next several minutes whispering admissions between kisses.

"About bloody fucking time," Scorpius gasped, breathless, and I loved the sound of voice when he swore in the heat of the moment. "Why did it take us so long?" He tipped his head back, breathing shallowly, inviting my attention.

"Hey, you could have made the first move," I murmured, trailing my lips along his jaw and nipping at his pulse point.

A small chill wracked him, and I felt his shiver as though it had gone through me, too. He clutched at me, one warm hand grasping my thigh and the other buried in my hair. I felt him tug and I managed one more small, sucking kiss on his jaw before he'd dragged me up to his lips again.

It was nearly an hour before we'd shakily disentangled and headed off to our dormitory, exhausted and unsure of our readiness to take anything further. I'd gotten to the bathroom first, which meant I'd gotten dibs on a quick private wank, biting my hand as a I came to stave off the shout I might have let loose otherwise.

After cleaning myself up, I'd slipped quietly back into the dormitory, relieved to find the curtains pulled closed on every four-poster but my own. The other boys were all sound asleep, thank Merlin. All except, apparently, Scorpius, although I could hardly blame him for being as worked up as I'd been. His curtains shrouded his bed like the others, but he'd forgotten to cast _Muffliato_ , and had I not just come minutes before, I'd have been hard again just hearing his soft sighs and the rhythmic wet pull as he furiously worked himself off, too. It hadn't been long before he gave a tiny gasping moan and a shuddering sigh. His soft panting gradually slowed.

I tried not to think about it. I tried to not think about the fact that my best mate of 6 years, with whom I had gotten up to terrible world-altering mayhem, had just jacked off not eight feet away because he was hard over _kissing me_.

I tried not to think about the fact that I'd just done the exact same thing.

Despite the admission of our obvious attraction, we still both harbored our mutual interest in girls. It was surprisingly easy to discuss later. We decided, perhaps out of insecurity and false bravado, that we wouldn't be totally exclusive because hey, what if a girl came along, ya know? We just didn't acknowledge the obvious lack of interest we were getting from any girls at Hogwarts.

And so as sixth year started, we continued to be – though not for lack of half-hearted trying – functionally exclusive. Sharing a room with three other boys made finding private time difficult, especially since we weren't terribly keen on letting anyone know we were…whatever the hell we were. The Malfoy nerd and the Slytherin Potter were already low on the likeability list. The stress of dealing with potential prejudice just wasn't worth it to either of us to out ourselves not only as bisexual, but together as well. News would spread beyond the House, beyond the school, to our families and to the gossip columns of the Daily Prophet. The media would have a damn field day. A field day neither of us was ready for.

So on rare occasions, such as free periods or lazy weekends when our homework was finished, we'd explore. We realized we were both very tactile and sensual. He quickly realized my adoration for snogging. Hours of long, lazy kisses, I _love_ it. Scorpius frequently teased me about that. "You're such a girl, Albus," he'd snicker, but then he'd pull me right back in for another kiss. Maybe he won't admit to loving a good snog as much as I do, but the way he lick into my mouth and whimpers when I nip his lower lip tells me he just might love it too, all teasing aside.

Hogsmeade weekends in particular had rapidly become our favorite weekends. I'd never given a shit about Hogsmeade, although Scorpius had been fascinated by its history for a short while. But when we realized that the other guys in our dormitory always went off the village whenever the chance arose, we started becoming just as excited as the rest of the House when the visit dates were posted in the Common Room, though for a markedly different reason.

For the most part, we spent those blissful weekends alone, just petting, kissing, _learning_ each other. We dragged fingertips over goose bumped skin and twitching muscles. Scorpius realized he could make my heart race and my abs shiver if he dragged his lips, barely touching me and huffing hot breaths, across my chest. In turn, I discovered that he liked to have his hair pulled and his ass grabbed roughly during a snog. We did everything we could to elicit those feelings in each other, as often as we could. And that meant wonderful stolen hours wrapped around each other, trembling and groaning.

But we'd never actually fucked. We just…weren't there yet. We'd wanked together, sure. First on our own, watching each other from our respective beds through heavy-lidded eyes, but after a couple instances of mutual tossing, we'd finally taken each other in hand. I'll never forget the look in Scorpius' eyes as he came for the first time by my hand, painting my stomach and huffing out a desperate, breathless moan that I've since come to crave way too much. He'd looked so vulnerable and beautiful and filled to the brim with raw contentment as he had slowly come down from his high, shakily pulling me in for a kiss with one hand, his other hand still working over my cock.

As I'd neared my own peak, I vaguely heard his voice cutting across my lusty haze.

"Look at me, Albus," he breathed. I sluggishly raised my head to meet his fiery gaze. "I want you to watch me watching you come."

His hand had sped up, which, while certainly appreciated, was ultimately unnecessary. His words alone were enough. I'd come suddenly, with the force of a gut-punch, and I swear only my shock at hearing my sweet, awkward nerd make that dirty demand had kept my eyes open.

We'd gone down on each other about a month later, curled around each other in a shuddering pile of limbs. We trembled through our orgasms together, trying to maintain our wits while still licking and sucking each other with our rookie abandon. I weakly rationalized that finesse would result from more experience, and so we continued to revel in our shaking thighs and debauched, wet smiles. And hey, gaining more experience sure sounded like fun.

We'd eventually braved attempting fingerfucking, and with the aid of copious vials of lube and whispered reassurances, we'd both managed to take a couple of each other's fingers anally several weeks later. I was on my back, legs splayed ridiculously wide, when I felt Scorpius seat his palm against my ass, his middle and index fingers sunk all the way to his knuckles. I looked down, hysterically and pathetically tempted to congratulate us both, when I caught sight of him. His fingers were slowly working in and out of me with his head ducked low, his disheveled, silky white hair brushing my dripping cock. He looked up at me when he felt my movement and gave me a sinful leer.

"That's my boy, Albus," he grated out. He stared me down as he gave my straining erection a kiss and long lick.

Scorpius had a tendency to tell me to come for him, but as with so many of our trysts, I didn't need that particular instruction. He brushed my prostate for the first time at the exact moment I fully registered the intense affection in his eyes, his pupils blown wide, and I can only scarcely remember the blur of my undignified moans and the heat of release, soon followed by the wet drag of his tongue and the vibrations of his chuckle as he kept thrusting his fingers, letting his knuckles scrape roughly at my entrance on each push.

Was this my life? Was this never-ending bliss of giddy smiles shared across the breakfast table and frenzied encounters during free periods truly my life?

It had continued on like this steadily into the winter. We were too caught up in schoolwork and exploring our relationship to have time or interest in any dangerous shenanigans like our fourth year.

Until Nate _bloody_ Craglin set us on another journey we didn't ask for.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2**

We'd fallen into an exhilarating habit, Scorpius and I. Life for the two of us was…good. Damn good, great even. We hadn't lost anything of our friendship and we'd gained a physical aspect that we were constantly desperate to explore more of. We still weren't ready to call ourselves exclusively boyfriends, perhaps because we both simply wished for the experience of a female touch. But even without a formal label for the new level our relationship had gotten to, it was nice to have another secret, although admittedly one less dangerous than running around with a psychotic Dark witch kidnapping us through time.

We weren't suddenly cool or liked by anyone else or anything; the rest of the student body still treated us like nobodies, although it didn't bother me as much now. After the events of fourth year and the new changes to my relationship with Scorpius, I felt more and more like the sneers from other kids didn't hold much weight. I had the best friend a guy could have, and having that friend spoil him with sex was just a bonus that I could easily focus my energy on, so most students were easy to disregard.

But then there was Nate Craglin, and his taunts were tougher to ignore. Craglin was a Ravenclaw in our year, a short, gangly boy whose mind ran a mile a minute. He fit the working stereotype of his House to a tee: smart and quirky, but not so odd as to draw any undue attention. His small stature had made him a target to bullies through the years. I'm not sure what help he'd received from his Head of House or parents or friends, but whatever it as was, it hadn't been good enough. Craglin hadn't turned into a panicky, friendless boy who was cowed to larger rivals the way many harassed students tended to do. No, Nate Craglin had become one of them.

But unlike most of his tormentors, he was crafty. He was still largely liked by the teachers and with his grades kept up and no obvious rule-breaking, he hadn't drawn any discipline or ill-will. But there had been whispers for a year or so that Craglin had not only been digging through Dark books in the Restricted Section after hours – access to which was easy as he was a Prefect and always signed on for patrols in corridors near the Library, according to Scorpius – but that he'd been working on inventing new spells. Some of the younger children he'd been tutoring claimed he'd asked them to help him with…testing. A few had ended up in the Hospital Wing unable or unwilling to give details about their study sessions, claiming their odd case of boils or strange pattern of cuts were somehow just bad coincidences. Typical accidents at a school for magic, right? They were child-wizards after all, these things happened. And since most of the teachers didn't believe the rumors about such a smart, well-behaved boy, and further, scoffed at the idea that an underage wizard, even a highly intelligent one, was capable of creating completely new magic unaided by professors, Craglin's alleged activities continued to get overlooked.

Was that a good enough excuse for him to be the way he was now? A sadistic brainiac out for revenge, even against people who'd done nothing to him? His tormentors had long since graduated. And yet many more students were now facing a similar fear from him, the boy who bitterly chose to continue the cruel cycle.

We were safe from his bullying, despite still be regarded as complete losers by most of the school. Being a Prefect like Craglin, Scorpius had earned immunity, and by extension, I was safe as well. That wasn't due to kindness, of course, it was just strategy; he'd rightly assumed that a fellow Prefect wouldn't stand for his activities if he did anything to confirm the rumors.

"I don't know, mate, there's something about that guy," I huffed irritably to Scorpius as we were leaving Transfiguration on our way to lunch. Craglin had spent much of the class period repeatedly transfiguring his feather duster into various species of vulture, rather than the assigned cockatoo.

"What, that he's a show-off?" Scorpius asked. "So he's good at Transfiguration. He's good at everything, he'll probably make Head Boy next year."

" _You_ will make Head Boy next year," I corrected him with a smile. It'd be a crime if Scorpius didn't receive that honor. "But no, I don't mean because he's good at that stuff. He flaunts it and gets cheered for it. If we'd pulled a stunt like that, we'd be told off for not doing the assignment correctly. I mean, Erickson flat-out encourages him. What else does he get away with?"

Scorpius quirked a disbelieving eyebrow in my direction, smiling gently. "You believe the rumors about him studying Dark magic at night and using it on the younger students?"

"He's… devious," I sighed, frustrated, running a hand through my hair. "It just feels like he's mean-spirited about the whole thing somehow. Like he's not even just having fun showing off with his mates. Doesn't it feel like he's just trying to intimidate people?"

I was coming across as petty and even a tad jealous, I knew that. But I truly thought there was something about him that couldn't be trusted.

"Look, he's showing off because he was always picked on around here when he was younger. He didn't get a whole lot bigger, but he did get cleverer, so now he's able to make people admire and respect him rather that target him for bad shit. I can't blame the guy for doing what he felt he had to for scaring off bullies and wanting to be noticed for something good," Scorpius said.

I glanced over at him and sighed. _I knew that look._ He was remembering the ugly gossip that followed him to school, a ridiculous story that started before his very first day at Hogwarts. He'd carried that weight with remarkable grace and maturity.

"You didn't deserve the shit said about you, Scorpius," I said, lowering my voice a little. "You've always been brave about facing down that lie. And you're naturally brilliant anyway."

He beamed at me, but I hadn't been paying him a compliment as much stating a fact.

"But this isn't the same," I said. "I don't know what it is. Just a gut feeling."

We had a free period after lunch, so we didn't bother rushing through our meal. We stayed a bit later, helping ourselves to thirds while most of the other students headed back out of the Great Hall.

Classes were already well underway when we finally got up from the table, ready to relax in the Common Room before Care of Magical Creatures in an hour.

As we turned the corner, Professor Erickson poked his head out of the Transfiguration classroom, looking up and down the corridor. He spotted us and asked, "You boys haven't seen any second-years still wandering the halls, have you?"

"No, sir, we haven't," said Scorpius, looking concerned, his Prefect mask suddenly in place. "Are you missing anyone?"

"I am," said Erickson. "Two Gryffindor boys, Hodges and Leary. I know they're not sick, I just saw them at lunch and they looked fine."

"We have a free period, we can look for them," Scorpius said, dutifully. "We'll bring them back to class, sir."

"Much appreciated, Mr. Malfoy," he smiled. "Mr. Potter," he nodded at me, a polite afterthought, as he turned back to his class and closed the door behind him.

I snorted. "So a couple of boys are skiving off and we're the fun police now? C'mon, Scorpius."

Scorpius gave me an impatient sort of grimace, although it was too affectionate to be withering. "I'm a _Prefect_ , Albus, and if a student is reported skipping class and I'm available to help find them, then yes, it's my job to be the 'fun police'."

"Well, it's not my job," I joked cheerily. "Meet you out at Hagrid's in an hour?"

"You're leaving me?" He asked, mock-wounded. "What if I need an assistant to help me search? What if the children become unruly and I need help in a duel?"

He was flirting, and I never had been able to resist that sweet, silly exaggeration of his.

"Well, if you insist," I said, grinning. I'd much rather search the castle for a couple delinquent students with Scorpius than sit in the Common Room without him anyway.

Scorpius reasoned that the boys may not have made it as far as the Transfiguration classroom and suggested that we double back, starting our search from the Great Hall where they were last seen having lunch.

"You really think they're missing? And not just hanging out in Gryffindor Tower?" I asked, incredulous.

"I know Hodges," Scorpius said. "I tutored Johnny for a term last year, remember?"

I did remember, now that he mentioned it, although I'd never bothered to learn the kid's name. Mostly what I remembered was that for a solid few months, it felt like Scorpius had been spending more time with a first-year than with me.

"So?" I asked.

" _So_ ," Scorpius continued, "I know him, Johnny's a good boy, he came to me for help on his own. He didn't wait for a teacher or his parents getting on his case about his grades or assigning him to a Prefect for tutoring. A kid who takes initiative for his own coursework like that isn't the kind of kid who just ditches class on a whim."

I rolled my eyes but followed along anyway. "What kind of eleven-year-old willingly asks for more lessons? And you're not even his Prefect anyway, he's in Gryffindor. Shouldn't tutoring him have been Rose's or Emmitt's responsibility?"

"He told me he didn't really want his Housemates to know he was slipping behind so no, he wouldn't have asked your cousin. And he knew I was good at this stuff and he figured not many other kids would have requested me for tutoring because, well…you know…" Scorpius shrugged and trailed off, checking a small study room and finding it empty.

Suddenly a thought occurred to me. It sounded stupid and outlandish but I decided to ask anyway.

"Hey, if this Hodges kid is so keen, maybe he's looking for any excuse to watch an older student do magic, ya know?"

Scorpius looked at me, curious. "Well, he always did enjoy my demonstrations while I was tutoring him. He'd ask me to show him all kinds of advanced spells, he was really interested in O.W.L.-level magic especially. But who doesn't like watching magic?"

There he went, giddy and geeky, and my train of thought was nearly derailed at how sweet he looked. I smothered my urge to pull him to me and pressed on instead.

"Well, do we happen to know any showboating assholes in this school? Someone who might enjoy an audience, especially an audience of wide-eyed, impressionable youngsters?" There was no way he could miss my insinuation.

He stared at me for a long moment. "Craglin, really? You think Nate Craglin – who is a _Prefect,_ might I remind you – would tempt a couple second-year students to ditch class so he could show off for them? You've really got it in for this guy."

I held up my hands in surrender. "Fine, fine, I'll leave it alone," I said, watching Scorpius duck briefly into another alcove before he turned back, coming up empty.

Just then, we heard a muffled blast from a classroom down the corridor. We looked at each other only briefly before sprinting down the hall and flinging the door open.

"Craglin," Scorpius breathed, his brow furrowing in disbelief as he saw who was inside. "And that's Hodges, too – Hey, Nate! What are you doing, these boys are late for Transfiguration."

But Craglin didn't seem to hear him and he didn't turn around, although Hodges and the other boy both shot us startled looks.

Craglin had his eyes closed and wand raised. He was muttering something while wisps of light purple smoke issue from his wand tip. At first the boys seemed intrigued by the curls of smoke, but it quickly began to thicken, becoming oily and heavy, and started to surround the boys in a hazy circle, swirling faster and faster. By the time the smoke climbed above their heads, Hodges and Leary were no longer smiling.

Craglin was making a complicated sort of flourish that looked as though he was drawing a shape in midair. Was it…an animal? The two boys huddled close as the smoke began to crackle with energy, still continuing to swirl. His chanting got louder. They looked terrified.

Before I could fully register that he wasn't just showing off a bit of advanced magic – _he's going to fucking use that spell on them?_ – Scorpius was already sprinting into the classroom. I lurched after him, not knowing the plan, other than we had to get the boys out of the way.

"Craglin, what the _bloody hell_ – ?" Scorpius hissed, furious. He ducked under the sizzling swirls of smoke and yanked both boys down with him by the hoods of their robes. They cowered together, clinging to Scorpius and looking up at the smoke, now almost burning with energy. They didn't react to Scorpius trying to shove them away.

"Boys, go," I instructed, catching up and grabbing them, pulling their hands free of Scorpius' robes and pushing them roughly in the direction of the door. "Find a teacher!"

Both Hodges and Leary stared at me wide-eyed for a moment before finally scrambling away from the spell and bolting through the door.

When I turned around, I saw a final, violent swish of Craglin's wand, slashing around in a whip-fast flourish. Craglin finally opened his eyes and ceased his unintelligible muttering, but he seemed momentarily confused to see us. Had he not heard us say anything since we came in? He created a spell that required a trance so deep that he completely lost himself in it?

But whatever spellwork he'd woven was done. I barely felt myself move the last few inches or so towards Scorpius but suddenly there I was, my hand making contact with his arm barely three frantic heartbeats before Craglin's swirling, crackling smoke hit us simultaneously and began to envelope us like a cocoon.

I'd anticipated being burned by the fiery energy, or to be choked by the thick smoke, but neither happened. Instead, I was completely startled by its gentle warmth and softness. It was actually quite comfortable for several long seconds. Confused, I tried to turn my head to look at Craglin, but suddenly my vision blurred and seemed to lose color. I could no longer make out his shape, or even the color of the haze that surrounded us. I felt myself weaving toward the ground, the heat of the spell now feeling like it was coming from within me, rather than covering my skin from the outside.

I couldn't see Scorpius anymore, and I couldn't hear anything over the rush of my breath and near-painful throb of my pulse beating in my ears, behind my eyes, even in my fingertips. My bones felt like they were dissolving and then reforming to be smaller. My body was compressing. My nose felt pinched, like someone was trying to pull it off my face. My teeth suddenly throbbed in my jaw, my gums scorching, and when I opened my mouth to curse in pain, it came out as a choked howl instead.

I landed on the ground finally, after falling for what felt like an eternity. But my hands were too small, my palms thick and leathery. My fingernails were far too long and they clicked as I scrabbled on the ground, trying to regain my balance. My teeth were still growing and changing shape. My ears felt like they were caught on hooks and being dragged up to the top of my head. I blearily looked up, trying to follow whatever invisible strings were tugging my ears, hoping to alleviate the sudden pounding headache it was causing.

I vaguely realized that I was flat on the ground now. I tried to push myself up to standing, intending to confront Craglin about whatever shit he'd just hit us with. But when my head cleared, and I was finally able to take note of my body, I realized – horrified – that I _was_ standing. I was just more than two feet shorter than I normally was.

I swung my head to my right in an effort to find Scorpius but I didn't see him. Instead, there was a large white wolf writhing on the ground, kicking helplessly. He was wide-eyed and panting, struggling to push himself up onto all fours.

The hair on the back of my neck was standing up straight, a feeling I'd never had such a literal experience with before. _So this is what it feels like to have hackles._ The prickling feeling spread down past my shoulders. It sent a nervous thrill through me that only served to make my anger and terror worse.

Gathering my frayed wits as best I could, I tried to yell, "What the fuck did you do to us, Craglin?!"

But instead all that came out was a series of harsh barks ending on a rumbling growl that resonated throughout the room. I startled even myself.

I'd finally managed to get my eyesight – now so much clearer in detail but duller in color – to focus on the scrawny boy a few feet away from us. Craglin had stumbled backwards and was bracing himself on a desk, staring wide-eyed back and forth between us. He was a mix of shocked and frightened. Then he exhaled heavily, still clutching his wand, and began to laugh, at first timidly and unsure, like he couldn't quite believe his eyes. But then he threw his head back and practically bawled his excitement, as if he simply couldn't suppress his ecstatic glee any longer.

"I can't – _believe_ – it actually fu – fucking _worked_! Bloody hell!" He stammered between bouts of laughter that had him nearly doubled over.

I glanced over to see Scorpius – _it must be Scorpius_ – shaking out his coat nervously, teeth bared and silver eyes blazing. His ears were pressed back flat against his head. He swung around to look at me and huffed out a small whimper, licking his lips nervously.

Craglin was practically crying from laughing so hard, leaning on the desk, and he just kept repeating, "I did it! I _actually_ did it! Merlin, it _worked._ "

Scorpius surged towards him, growling and snapping. Craglin gasped and tipped backwards off the desk, landing in a heap. He quickly pulled himself underneath it, cowering away from Scorpius, but he was still wheezing out his laughter.

"And you'll never be the same, boys," he rasped, hardly able to catch his breath through his giggles. "I wanted permanence, some sort of change that couldn't be undone. Wonder what it'll be, boys? You'll always remember me for this."

" _What is this?_ " A horrified voice shouted from the doorway.

All three of us nearly jumped out of our skin. We all whipped around to see Professor Erickson striding quickly into the room, wide-eyed. Leary and Hodges were peeking into the room behind him, clutching each other's robes; the smaller boy, Leary, was in tears.

"Professor," Craglin breathed, looking torn on whether he should be ashamed at getting caught, or thrilled that his unique Transfiguration work would be seen by the professor.

I'm not surprised that he chose to brag.

"It worked, sir! It was tough, but I figured it out. It was different from a regular Transfiguration of course, I had to choose the target animal and I'm fascinated with wolves so that's what I went for. But I added in a scaled-down Permanency Charm, although I don't know what trait is going to stick yet. I have ideas of course, but I have to find out what's going to remain –"

He would have kept going with his maniacal babbling had Erickson not wordlessly issued a Silencing Charm with a sharp jab of his wand. Craglin recoiled a bit, physically rocked by the force of the spell. Erickson whirled around and looked down at me first, eyes frantically searching mine as though trying to reason through what he was seeing. I lowered my head and slowly took a step back, then another, trying not to look like a threat, hoping desperately that he wouldn't curse us out of fear. A whine from my right dragged his gaze to Scorpius, whose shoulders were hunched and tail tucked submissively, although his eyes were still flashing wildly between Erickson and Craglin.

" _Malfoy?_ " He whispered, sounding both dumbstruck and repulsed. He turned back to me, warily. "So then… _Potter_?"

I nodded and Scorpius did the same, a shiver rippling the fur down his spine to the tip of his tail. He groaned and shook out his coat.

Erickson spun again, this time toward the door to the classroom where Hodges and Leary were still watching, clutching each other.

"Fetch Professor McGonagall immediately," he ordered frantically. "The password to her office is 'Magpie'."

The boys practically vanished down the corridor.

"What were you _thinking_ , Craglin?" Erickson whispered, horrified, eyes darting among the three of us. We were all stunned silent.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 3**

Scorpius and I were standing shoulder to shoulder, watching as Erickson and McGonagall questioned Craglin. The Headmistress had entered the room several minutes ago in a flurry of tartan robes and had immediately pointed her wand at us, understandably alarmed at the sight of two fully-grown wolves standing in a classroom in her school. Oddly, Erickson wasn't the only one who jumped to our defense, blocking her path towards us; Craglin had done so as well, waving his arms wildly and shouting at her to stop.

 _He's just protecting the results of his sick experiment, he's not saving us from her._

"Don't you get it?" Craglin was shouting desperately, interrupting whatever McGonagall had been asking him. "Think of the uses for my new spell, Headmistress! You can Transfigure things normally, but permanently maintain a certain trait of one in the other without using an extra spell. I just need more time to work out how to target a specific trait each time. Someone with poor eyesight can use this to be turned into, say, a hawk. Turn back to human and _bam_! Still human, but with perfect vision. Better vision, even, than any other human alive! A Quidditch Seeker would find the Snitch immediately every time –!"

Professor McGonagall's mouth thinned and her stare hardened, effectively quelling Craglin's outburst. "How noble, Mr. Craglin," she said acidly, "that you've been dedicating your talents to the fine ambition of helping Quidditch players cheat."

Craglin frowned slightly and Professor McGonagall continued.

"Even if you were pursuing the highly advanced art of spellcrafting for the _actual_ betterment of magicalkind, you are not only doing so while unsupervised and without approval, you are also forgetting that the use of magic on unsuspecting and unwilling underage participants is highly illegal. To use such dangerous magic as experimental Transfiguration on another person – let alone _two people_ – is reprehensible!"

For the first time since the Headmistress came in, Craglin looked like he was beginning to understand that he was losing this fight. "But Headmistress," he tried gathering himself, "it isn't just that, it could be… maybe the Healers at St. Mungo's or the Aurors' Office could adapt it for something…maybe like…" He trailed off, looking desperate but unable to improvise another usage for his spell.

"You tempted two twelve-year-olds to be your test subjects, and then continued to carry out your magic even after Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Potter pulled them out of the way. We have no idea of the lasting consequences of this attack on them!" McGonagall fumed.

Craglin seemed lost in his own world for a few moments, still searching for a justification. But then he finally sighed and dissolved into a sort of bitter, self-righteous pouting. He snorted derisively, giving up. "I wanted to be remembered. No one ever here understood my potential. Who else here has my creativity and skill? No one else would have thought of this!"

"No one else would have thought of it, boy, because it's a heinous thing to think of!" Erickson spat while McGonagall glowered. "Forcing unwitting students to be Transfigured into something without their full consent, and then be further made to live with some change for the rest of their lives? You would use your genius for _this_?"

Erickson looked beyond disgusted, personally offended, even. One of his top students using a gift he'd help nurture and refine, now being used as a weapon to gain notoriety. I'd never felt much one way or another for Erickson, but I felt a profound sympathy for him right then. He was practically swimming in guilt in front of all of us.

Craglin seemed to have latched onto only the word "genius" from Erickson's rant and had the audacity to look marginally smug, as though they'd admitted his work was incredible and that was all he cared to hear.

"I will be writing to your parents straight away, Mr. Craglin," said Professor McGonagall in her sternest tone. "You will be expelled from Hogwarts and this attack will be reported to the Office of Magical Law Enforcement for potential charges of assault and improper use of magic. Hand me your wand."

Craglin froze wide-eyed at hearing the phrase "expelled from Hogwarts", and made no move to do anything, much less hand his wand over to the Headmistress.

" _Your wand_ , Craglin," Erickson bit out, watching him carefully. "Slowly now."

Craglin came back to himself ever so slightly at the order, his gaze flickering to Erickson momentarily. For one panicky second, I scented something my wolf translated instantly as _threat!_ and I could have sworn I saw a flash of violence in his eyes, as though he were actually calculating his chances of successfully casting a curse at either professor right now.

Scorpius must have seen it too because he suddenly lunged toward Craglin, a rippling snarl tearing from his throat.

Craglin startled badly, his wand tumbling from his hand and clattering to the floor. He made an automatic move for it but with a quick " _Expelliarmus!_ " from Erickson, the wand slipped between his shaking fingertips and soared straight into Erickson's grasp.

Finally defeated, Craglin stood up, glancing around the room vaguely, shaking his head. He smirked ever so slightly upon seeing Scorpius and me, both of us still bristling.

"To my office, Mr. Craglin. _Now._ " McGonagall had a fire in her eyes that I wouldn't have thought a person her age could readily muster.

Erickson handed off Craglin's wand to McGonagall and was through the classroom door first, saying he would need to post a sign in his classroom cancelling all Transfiguration classes for the rest of the day if he was to help sort out our condition. He would also need to escort his second-year students back to their Common Room, then take Hodges and Leary to the Hospital Wing as a precaution before writing letters to their families.

"I'll be in your office as soon as I can manage it, Headmistress," he said before hurrying down the corridor.

Scorpius and I followed Professor McGonagall, who was watching Craglin carefully as he led the way to her office, shuffling lazily.

It was entirely surreal, seeing the castle from this height, walking on four legs, my senses unbelievably heightened. I could pick up the wafting stench of bungled potions all the way up here, several floors above the dungeon classroom. I could hear the clank of plates and goblets being washed and put away by the elves in the Kitchens. I could see the painted embroidery detail on the dress of an old duchess, the portrait hung a hundred feet down the corridor.

As mad as this was, I couldn't help but wonder what fun Scorpius must have been having analyzing this new perspective. Even scared, he would be fascinated.

Luckily, we didn't pass anyone else in the halls as we journeyed through the castle, for which I was grateful. The gossip would spread like wildfire as soon as news of Craglin's expulsion got out, and I didn't want the additional panic about wolves wandering the school fueling it.

As soon as we got into the Headmistress' office, Craglin dumped himself in a chair across from McGonagall's desk, not looking at anyone or saying anything. Scorpius and I faltered a bit, unsure of what to do. McGonagall paid us no mind as she began gathering parchment on her desk, so we eventually sat down next to each other a little ways off, behind Craglin in a shadowy corner, near a small table on which a game of Wizard's Chess was set up.

Professor McGonagall didn't speak to any of us as she scribbled out short notes on three different parchments, then sent them through the Floo in her office fireplace. "Much faster than Owl Post," she explained. "And we hardly have time to waste, given our lack of knowledge about the extent of the damage you may have inflicted upon your classmates, Mr. Craglin."

Craglin didn't look up or acknowledge her in any way.

We sat in uncomfortable silence for another ten or fifteen minutes, just waiting. Scorpius whimpered softly a few times and each time he did I automatically tucked my head against his, pressing our furred shoulders together, where we'd stay nuzzled for several seconds until my wolf felt his stress decrease. I didn't even bother to think how we would have looked had the Headmistress noticed us just then.

But McGonagall was busy scratching her quill over a much longer roll of parchment now and never once looked up at any of us. The portraits on the walls, however, were beginning to perk up and mutter restlessly to each other. Several pointed us out to neighboring portraits and stared, whispering. When had wolves ever been seen inside the Hogwarts' Heads' office?

"Is that…?" A portrait of a portly old wizard was looking down upon McGonagall's desk. "My dear Minerva, is that an expulsion record?"

"You are correct, Headmaster Billingsforth," she said without looking up at the portrait. Other portraits began to whisper louder still.

"Whatever for?" Billingsforth demanded curiously. "There hasn't been an expulsion from Hogwarts in decades."

Just then the fireplace flared to life, emerald green flames winding up and down the legs of a man, then a few seconds later, of a woman, both of whom I'd never seen before. Craglin looked over at the fireplace automatically, but upon seeing who had just entered the office, suddenly looked mortified and sunk a bit lower in his chair.

"Mr. and Mrs. Craglin," McGonagall greeted, somewhat stiffly. "Please, do come in, take a seat. We will have a few more joining us." She Conjured two more chairs for them and they sat down, looking curiously at their son, although he didn't make eye contact with either of them.

"What's this about?" Mrs. Craglin asked concernedly, looking from her son to McGonagall and back again.

"I would prefer to explain this situation only once, Mrs. Craglin," McGonagall said firmly. "It will save time in the long-run. It won't be long now, our other guests should be arriving shortly."

This wasn't a very satisfying answer, apparently, because both Mr. and Mrs. Craglin turned away from the Headmistress toward Nate, and began whispering to him under their breath. He shook his head and ran a hand through his hair absently, then went back to staring at his lap without speaking to either of them.

Less than a minute later, the fireplace blazed again, and I wasn't surprised to see my own parents step out of it one by one, brushing themselves off, looking worried.

"Minerva?" Mum asked, sounding anxious. "You letter was urgent, is everything -?"

"Your children aren't in any trouble, Ginny, please take a seat," McGonagall said quickly, Conjuring three more chairs. Mum and Dad both nodded, looking moderately relieved, though still confused, especially at being seated next to Craglin and his parents, none of whom they'd ever met before. "You'll see why I called you shortly. It's probably for the best that the Head of Magical Law Enforcement is here anyway. We're waiting for one more."

My parents took two of the newly-Conjured chairs, not even noticing Scorpius or me, behind and out of direct view from where they were seated. Scorpius breathed out in a way that must be the wolf equivalent of a sigh; we both knew who the last chair was for.

My ears pricked when I heard Dad mutter low to Mum. It was too low for the others near them to hear, but my hearing having increased in sensitivity meant I could hear them just fine all the way back here.

"Why would it matter that I was here in my job capacity?" He asked, confused. "Did the note mention that? I thought it just said…"

"No, I don't think so," Mum whispered back, equally confused, and I could scent her beginning to get alarmed. "She said neither of them were in trouble, I wonder if…"

But she broke off as right then, another green flash from the fireplace revealed Draco Malfoy stepping into the Headmistress' office, looking just as stern and unruffled as I'd ever seen him.

"Minerva," he nodded to her in greeting, then quirked an eyebrow when he saw the other parents. He paused when he saw my parents and looked to McGonagall.

"Please have a seat, Draco," McGonagall instructed gently, then addressed them all as he took the last chair on the other side of my mother. "The reason we are all here is because Nate has just been caught performing illegal, experimental magic."

Craglin's parents looked shocked. Mrs. Craglin's gaze darted sharply at her son, but still he refused to meet her eye.

McGonagall continued on. "There have been rumors floating around since last year that he has been enticing younger students into being his test subjects, with at least four students ending up in the Hospital Wing around the time of scheduled tutoring sessions they had with Nate. So far, however, none of those students have admitted how they came to sustain their strange injuries, nor have they explicitly implicated Nate as being party to the events which caused them. However, we will be following up with those students more thoroughly, in light of this afternoon's events."

"Wait, I'm sorry, what are you saying?" Nate's father looked more confused than angry, but McGonagall cut him off.

"I apologize, Mr. Craglin, but the allegations go further," she said. "The Head Boy and Girl, as well as a number of other Prefects, have reported that Nate often requests patrols near the Library, while three other students – who shall remain nameless – have reported that he's told them directly that he uses that privilege to sneak into the Restricted Section after hours to study some of the books of a more advanced and... Dark nature."

Everyone in the room was silent and tense. Mrs. Craglin was staring over at her son like she hardly recognized him and even from this distance, I could see she had tears glistening at the corners of her eyes.

"Nate…" Mr. Craglin started, staring intently at his son, brow furrowed in worry and confusion. "Is this…? This can't be true. You're just doing some extra credit work, right? Tell her you've just been doing research, you haven't been hurting anyone…"

I couldn't see my parents' expressions from where I was sitting, almost directly behind them, but their body language was stiff and alert as everyone else seemed to wait for Nate to answer his father's questions. My heightened senses allowed me to smell their stress and building agitation. Their discomfort was making my fur itch and my wolf desperately wanted to pad across the room and press against them for comfort – both theirs and mine – the same way I'd instinctively moved against Scorpius before they'd arrived.

When Nate refused to answer his father, McGonagall pressed on, looking at Mr. and Mrs. Craglin directly.

"We will, of course, be investigating these claims more seriously as well," she promised heartily. "However, as I stated before, Nate was caught less than an hour ago in the act of performing a Transfiguration of his own design on two other students. He first targeted two boys, both second-years, before the spell hit two sixth-year boys who were able to pull the younger students to safety."

She looked over at my parents and Draco. "Albus and Scorpius were hit with that spell," she said gravely.

All three of them reacted at once. Mum gasped, uttering a terrified, "Oh no," and looked to my Dad as he demanded, "What do you mean 'a Transfiguration of his own design'?" Draco leaned over in his chair to take a closer look at Craglin, who squirmed a bit in his chair and still wouldn't look at anyone. "What have you done to my son?" Draco hissed at him.

"As near as we can tell, Scorpius and Albus appear to be fine in their Transfigured state for the time being," McGonagall quickly reassured them. "They're here, you must not have seen them on your way in. Would you like to join us, boys?" She leaned to look around my father and gestured us over.

Everyone but Nate whipped around to look at us, all of them gasping. Their expressions were mingled puzzlement and disbelief, but fortunately no one panicked. Still, neither of us moved.

" _Albus?_ " Mum asked blinking at me, totally baffled, not that I could blame her. She was staring at a wolf, not her son.

"It's alright, boys, you're not in any trouble," said Professor McGonagall, rather kindly. "You saved Hodges and Leary, after all."

Dad looked to McGonagall briefly at hearing the word "saved", then looked back at me with the tiniest hint of a smile tugging at his lips.

Draco stood slowly, brow furrowed and eyes wide, seeming to have forgotten his anger now that he was no longer focused on Craglin. "Scorpius…" He said, his quiet tone a mixture of awe and unease.

Scorpius slowly got up and moved towards him, anxiously trying to look non-threatening with his head ducked, and I stiffly followed suit. We didn't stray from each other's side as we made the slow walk to their chairs, every single eye – even the portraits' – except for Nate's drilling into us as we crossed the room. We ended up sitting back down next to each other again, between our parents, Draco to Scorpius' left and my parents to my right. Draco slowly sat back down, his eyes skimming over the pure white wolf now sat on the floor beside his chair.

"As you can see, they're cognizant. They recognize you and can understand us, so they aren't like natural wolves," said McGonagall. "So far everything they've done indicates to us that they've kept their consciousness and intelligence, but may possibly be experiencing some lupine instincts and senses, similar to how Animagi function in their animal forms."

Mum hadn't taken her eyes off me since McGonagall had first pointed us out. She reached out a shaking hand to brush my furry shoulder softly. For some reason, I felt stunned at the touch and didn't move, even though the feeling was quite pleasant. I guess I was just surprised that she wasn't repulsed.

Just then the office door opened and Erickson stepped inside. He nodded curtly in greeting to everyone and said dutifully, "Ready when you need me, Headmistress."

"Yes, thank you, Andre," McGonagall said. "Professor Erickson and I will personally be working out the counterspell to right Scorpius and Albus, unless Nate is willing to give it to us directly. However, the most immediate reason for this meeting is to inform you, Mr. and Mrs. Craglin, that Nate is now expelled from Hogwarts."

The shock and anger hadn't faded from the Craglins' faces, and all three of them twitched when McGonagall made a show of picking up Nate's wand from her desk and snapping it in two, before handing the splintered pieces back to him. Craglin stared down at them in his hand, looking for the first time, genuinely heartbroken.

I felt a cruel triumph settle in my gut and I barely realized that I'd bared my teeth. My skin had warmed and was tingling, and I only narrowly contained the growl before it left my throat. I only noticed my hackles had raised when I felt a hand stroke down over my shoulders, smoothing down my agitation. I twitched and looked up to my parents, both of whom were giving me understanding looks.

"It'll be alright, sweetheart," Mum whispered sympathetically.

I was so ready to be rid of this damn spell.


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER 4**

"Harry, Ginny, Draco, if you would excuse us for a moment, we need to settle a few things," Professor McGonagall said. Mrs. Craglin was completely in tears now, wiping her eyes and blowing her nose with tissues offered to her by McGonagall, while Mr. Craglin was angrily shaking his head, pacing around in front of McGonagall's desk and hissing something low at Nate, who was looking shell-shocked and nearly in tears himself.

Draco and my parents rose and headed for the door where Erickson had taken it upon himself to usher them out. Scorpius and I followed quietly at a short distance, never straying from each other's side. When the adults all had their backs turned, Scorpius chanced pressing his muzzle against my neck briefly, nuzzling warmly, just before Mum turned around to encourage us to follow.

Once outside on the landing, Erickson politely gestured for us to follow him into the private room off the Great Hall, the one we'd lined up in as first-years before being Sorted.

"We haven't cancelled any classes except for my own," he explained, once he closed the door behind us. "We don't want to alarm the other students and it's probably best if we maintain privacy as best we can until this ordeal is resolved."

"So what's the plan?" Dad asked, hands on his hips, already in Auror mode. "Casting experimental magic on underage wizards is a serious crime, not just grounds for expulsion."

Erickson nodded, "Yes, Professor McGonagall explained to Nate that he might very well face charges from the Ministry. I'm sure she'll turn over anything needed for a trial. I'll testify as well if necessary, and of course –" he looked down at Scorpius and me. "Once the boys are back to normal, I'm sure they'll be happy to explain what exactly happened as well."

We both nodded, and I felt Mum stroke gently over my ears. I found that I liked the feeling so I stayed seated at her side and she continued her gentle ministrations.

Draco asked Erickson what his part in all this was, probably mostly to burn time until McGonagall had finished with the Craglins, so Erickson told about how he noticed his students were missing after lunch and enlisted our help to find them. Less than ten minutes later, the missing boys had run back into the classroom in a panic, teary and shouting for help. When he got to the classroom Hodges and Leary had indicated, there was Craglin, laughing his head off at two livid wolves.

Our parents all sighed, exasperated, then dissolved into uneasy silence. Erickson's story had revealed almost nothing, and offered no answers or solutions. I was aching to tell them what happened, and while I'd never been overly talkative before – especially with my parents – I felt terribly frustrated that I couldn't speak at all in that moment.

My agitation must have showed, because Mum squatted down next to us and looked me right in the eye. She was smiling softly and shaking her head in an affectionate sort of disbelief at the situation.

"You boys should be proud of yourselves," she said sweetly, and she stroked her hand fleetingly over Scorpius' furred foreleg, then my own. "Pulling those other boys out – that was brave of you. At least you're not hurt. And Minerva and Andre will set you both right again."

At the mention of his name, Erickson rolled up his sleeves importantly and looked at the two of us. "Right, well, let's start with the basics," he said, intently. Pointing his wand at Scorpius, he muttered, " _Fera verto_."

Nothing happened, which was probably for the best with the way Scorpius cringed away from him and Draco glowered at Erickson.

"Let's leave the spellwork to Minerva," Draco said tightly, moving to stand protectively in front of Scorpius.

"If he's developed a counterspell and he provides it to her willingly, it might help reduce his sentencing," Dad mused quietly, almost to himself, as he looked absently into the fireplace. "Not that a case like this would carry a light sentence, of course, but cooperation helps everyone. First and foremost, we need to get the boys Transfigured back and make sure they're healthy."

The room once again descended into uncomfortable silence for several more minutes in which the adults all seemed to have nothing better to do than stare at Scorpius and me, scrutinizing us with pained expressions on the faces. I could feel Scorpius' unease increasing, triggered more so by the stress level in the room than by his Transfigured state, though neither of us dared to move in for comforting cuddles in front of this lot. His hackles were raised, and I felt mine lift as well.

Unable to take the mounting tension in the room, and not trusting myself to avoid snuggling up to Scorpius while sitting so close to him, I started pacing the room to calm my nerves. I felt everyone's eyes tracking me as I stalked around aimlessly, occasionally shaking out my coat, until McGonagall entered abruptly, looking slightly flustered. I walked back over to my mother's side as the Headmistress took out her wand.

"Young Mr. Craglin just gave me the counterspell, so let's get this started, shall we?" She said. She indicated for our parents to back away from us but none of them moved.

"What if he lied about it?" Draco asked apprehensively, and I heard my dad hum in agreement.

"Exactly, what if the spell he gave you makes the Transfiguration entirely permanent, or changes them further?" Dad asked, nodding at Draco.

"Mr. and Mrs. Craglin authorized me to use Veritaserum on Nate to ensure the accuracy of the counterspell instructions," McGonagall said matter-of-factly.

If I'd had eyebrows right then, they'd have been in my hairline. I couldn't imagine her using Truth Potion on an underage student, even with parental permission, but I suppose desperate times and all that.

There was a ripple of shock in the room at her pronouncement, but everyone here knew Vertiserum well enough to know that whatever instructions he'd given her while under its influence were completely truthful.

My parents both leaned down, cocking reassuring half-smiles and each giving me firm ruffles over what used to be my shoulders. I tried to say, "Thanks, guys, it'll be fine," out of reflex but it came out as a pathetic drawn-out whine instead. _How unmanly._ The undignified sound earned me a cooed, "Awww, love," and a kiss on the muzzle from Mum. I snorted, embarrassed.

They stood up and I turned toward Scorpius, who was wagging his tail ever-so-slightly as his dad spoke softly to him. Then Draco stood from where he was kneeling down and ruffled a hand over Scorpius' neck before backing away to stand off to the side as well, on the opposite side of the fireplace as my parents. "You're sure about this, Professor?" He asked nervously.

"I think I can handle a bit of Transfiguration, Draco," she said coolly. "Cragin's process was actually remarkably neat and simple, even if the incantation was lengthy. Boys?"

Scorpius and I moved towards her, and were standing as close to each other then as we were when the attack first happened, our furred shoulders brushing slightly. McGonagall started muttering an almost musical spell, the end of her wand issuing a light green smoke that surrounded us, much like the purple smoke did earlier. But rather than crackling with energy, this one began to shimmer harmlessly as it wrapped us up. It slowly obscured my vision and when I turned my head, the last thing I saw before it overtook me were my parents' faces, both grimacing fretfully.

The spell's magical execution might have felt gentler, but the transformation itself was just as rough as the first time. My bones bent impossibly, twisting and growing this time. My fingers cracked as they lengthened, and I couldn't hold in the half-wolf, half-human grunt of pain as they snapped, one by one. My nose felt like it was being shoved back into my face, as though I was being pressed mercilessly into a brick wall. I could no longer breathe so I couldn't cry out as my teeth ground down and my ears felt as if they were being yanked down my skull. The odd warmth that had settled over me from the first transformation was lifting now, and I shivered as it rose from my skin, pulling itself out of my pores. My head spun, my balance faltered, and my newly-reformed knees gave out entirely. I was cold all over and my back spasmed brutally as my spine compressed, no longer accommodating a tail.

I groggily realized that the smoke had cleared, and I could make out the vague shapes of my parents. A sudden stab of vanity gripped me just then and I wished my parents weren't here to see me like this, especially as my arms snapped back to their correct positions, my elbows locking and then giving out, forcing me over heavily onto my aching back. I couldn't contain the sharp, ringing groan that I let out as my shoulders broadened too quickly and the joints popped, my arms reseating themselves in their sockets. My shout triggered a pained gasp from my mother, and again I desperately wished that she wasn't here to see this.

I rolled again as my ribs rippled around inside my chest before I collapsed, my transformation finally finished, and I ended up on my side facing Scorpius, who was squirming rather spastically, hissing out a grunt as his back arched painfully. I watched, utterly sickened, as several of his vertebrae slotted themselves back into place, one by one. After a final jerk of a backwards-twisted wrist that made him growl much the way his wolf-self might have, Scorpius settled down as well, panting.

We were winded and listless, and suddenly I felt hands on me and heard voices, although I couldn't immediately make out what was being said by anyone for a few moments. I laid still for a few more breaths, listening to the panicked flutter of my racing heartbeat while two pairs of gentle hands stroked over my hair, shook my shoulder, squeezed my hand, rubbed my back. Then the unsteadiness seemed to pass, waring off surprisingly fast for how intense it was. I shakily sat up and blinked the tears out of my eyes. _When had I started to cry?_

Mum was wiping my face as Dad held me up by my shoulder, peering at me carefully. This was the most upset I'd seen them they had since they'd Floo'd into the Headmistress' office. My vision sharpened, my brain slowly catching up, and it felt momentarily strange to be able to make out so many colors that the wolf couldn't. My pulse was still thudding through my whole body and my mouth was dry.

I heard coughing and looked to my left, seeing Scorpius being helped up to a sitting position by Draco. I felt a surge of relief. My best mate was back and in as good a shape as I could ask for after the insane couple hours we'd just had.

"Oh, boys, I'd like for you to go straight to the Hospital Wing so you can be monitored," said Professor McGonagall, rather anxiously. "How do you feel? That looked much slower and more awful than any animal Transfiguration I've ever performed, I'm so sorry."

"Not at all, Professor," Scorpius croaked, then coughed again. "We're human, at least."

"Did it work? Nothing - wolfish…leftover?" Dad asked me.

I took a quick mental inventory as well as I could while sitting on the ground, feeling like I'd just been hit by the Hogwarts Express.

"Feel fine. Nothing feels off. But we'll let you know, Professor, after we've had a chance to rest," I said to McGonagall and she beamed unsteadily for the first time that afternoon, looking somewhat reassured.

Scorpius surprised everyone by standing up suddenly, shaking out his limbs and stretching before Draco could get up to follow him. "Thank you, Headmistress, I don't think a better execution of that spell would have been possible. I think Nate just didn't factor in comfort." He grinned gratefully at her. "But I am parched and starving," he announced. "Albus?"

I found that I was able to stand up as well and, letting Mum take my hand, began to walk with Scorpius towards the door. "I'll have an early dinner sent up to you," the Headmistress called after us. "Also, Harry, if you wouldn't mind – when you have a moment after Albus is settled, could you –?"

Dad looked over at her and nodded. "Absolutely, Professor. I'll be back to your office to speak with the Craglins and I'll open the official inquiry this evening."

Professor McGonagall smiled tightly and nodded before leaving out another door leading to the Kitchens, Erickson following after her.

The five of us made an odd group as we headed up to the Hospital Wing.

"That looked much more painful that I imagined it would be, like Minerva said," Dad fussed and Mum looked at me solemnly, squeezing my hand tighter. "All the Transfigurations I've seen or done never seemed to cause pain to any living thing being Transfigured."

I didn't want to worry them any more than they already were, but after the events of fourth year, I'd made it a goal to at least _try_ to avoid flat-out lying to them. I glanced over at Scorpius, who was looking straight ahead. He'd obviously heard what my dad had said and was now pointedly avoiding eye contact with both me and his own father.

"Honestly, yeah, it – it was pretty uncomfortable," I said, not looking at anyone. "I'm not sure how long it took on either end, I kind of lost track of time on both Transfigurations, but it feels like it lasted a while. The second one – turning back, I mean – felt a bit..."

"Turning back felt much worse," Scorpius muttered almost angrily, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Draco's brow furrow and jaw clench even more. Scorpius briefly caught my eye and shrugged.

 _Well hell, if he's going to be blunt, I will be as well._

"Yeah, it bloody hurt. Both times. Slow and painful," I said firmly. There was a collective sigh of frustration from the group; narrowly-contained anger that not only had Craglin attacked and used us, but _hurt_ us as well. The last time anyone had hurt either of us intentionally was when Delphi –

Nope. I was not going to think about that just then. Absolutely not.

"You're going to pursue charges, Potter," Draco snarled at my dad. "As stiff a penalty as the law allows. And no getting off easy just because he's underage."

"Of course I am, Draco," Dad growled back and I can't stop from rolling my eyes at their casual, never-ending feud. "Underage wizard or not, this is a serious crime. He's already been expelled and his wand snapped. I plan to arrest him when I head back to Minerva's office, right then and there."

Draco huffed his displeasure and we continued on in heavy silence until we reached the Hospital Wing.

Madam Fairmont, a gifted young Healer whom Professor McGonagall had convinced to leave St. Mungo's for Hogwarts, replaced aging Madam Pomfrey a few years prior. As we entered, she was collecting trays of food from a pair of House Elves. One of them told her something as she set the second tray down, before they both bowed deeply and vanished with two tiny pops.

"In bed, the pair of you," she said to Scorpius and me, kind but firm. "The Headmistress sent elves with your food, but she also sent along the message that you ought to be given a potion of distilled mandrake as a supplemental restorative."

"To help counteract any lingering effects of the Transfiguration," Scorpius said, reciting as if he was in class, while kicking off his shoes and shrugging off his robes before he climbed into the bed to my right.

"Is that what happened, then? A Transfiguration?" she asked, handing each of us cups of water before hurrying to the cupboard to retrieve the correct potion bottle. Our parents took seats near us but stayed out of Madam Fairmont's way.

"Yes, ma'am," Scorpius said, still managing to be his usual polite self even through his fatigue and hunger.

"Class assignment gone wrong, or a prank?" She asked shrewdly, selecting a bottle and starting to measure out the contents in two cups.

"Neither, ma'am, not exactly a prank –" Scorpius started to say, but was interrupted.

"They were attacked by another student," Dad said impatiently. "Nate Craglin."

Mum cut in, "They were protecting a couple of second-year boys from him."

"You mean young Mr. Hodges and Mr. Leary," said Madam Fairmont, ceasing her measuring and looking up at us, suddenly piecing together the active afternoon she must have had. "Professor Erickson brought them in earlier, poor boys were frightened half out of their wits. The Professor didn't give me any details, just that a sixth-year had been using 'ill-advised' magic around them."

I couldn't help but scoff at Erickson's sugar-coating. "'Ill-advised magic.' It was indeed that."

"It was Craglin, you say?" Madam Fairmont asked, her gaze sharpening in concern, and a bit of skepticism too. "I wouldn't have guessed it."

Draco's glare seemed to be permanently affixed to his face but he said nothing. Dad answered again, "He used a Transfiguration of his own making. I'll be having the Improper Use of Magic Office open an investigation. Minerva has already expelled him."

Madam Fairmont straightened suddenly, looking alarmed at the news. She grew more serious but didn't say anything more and returned to her task hastily. She finished measuring out the glasses and replaced the bottle back in the cabinet.

"After you've had this, you can have you your dinner trays," she said, handing each of us a cup full of an oily-looking potion the color of wet clay. It smelled like earth after rain, a scent I found quite pleasant. The texture was an entirely different story, however. It gagged me, somehow being both runny and chunky all at once, like poorly a blended smoothie.

I quickly chased it down with another glass of water that Madam Fairmont had passed me, while mum situated the dinner tray on my lap. I dug into the beef stew and saw Scorpius doing the same.

"So what happened?" Dad asked.

 _Ugh, really, he wants to talk right now?_

I swallowed thickly. "Like Erickson told you, really. Scorpius and I have a free period after lunch, so we were going to go back the Common Room, but Erickson stopped us as we were walking past his classroom, and said he couldn't find a couple of his Gryffindors. Luckily Scorpius already knew one of them, Hodges, from tutoring him last year." I gulped another bite of carrots and potatoes.

"So we retraced our steps, and then we heard this blast from down the corridor from an empty classroom and ran in and sure enough, the boys were in there, but so was Craglin and he was going into some sort of trance. Started doing what you just saw Professor McGonagall do, except Craglin's spell made purple smoke that sort of burned." I chanced another bite.

"Anyway, Scorpius yelled at him but he didn't seem to hear him and didn't stop his incantation so we ran inside and Scorpius got the kids down and I shoved them away. I told them to run for a teacher." I took another huge bite.

Scorpius took up the baton, having been able to shovel food in his mouth the entire time I was talking.

"So the boys ran for it, but by that time, we were pretty much wrapped up in the smoke and it touched us and we just… changed. It was slow and dizzying and…" he swiped a nervous look at his dad but continued, "– it was pretty painful." Draco dropped his head for a second, hissing out an angry sigh before he looked back up at his son.

"But then there we were, just…" Scorpius trailed off, shaking his head and I totally understood. He was remembering that strange few moments where we felt like ourselves in our minds, but our bodies didn't even remotely match.

"It was so confusing," he said, "because my consciousness didn't change. I still felt like me, but I looked down and saw _paws_. And I looked over where Albus was supposed to be and there's just this big, black wolf. And I freaked out because I didn't connect that it was you at first," he finished, looking over at me.

I nodded. "Yeah, same. I tried to say something but it just came out all growly. And then there's Craglin standing there, just completely thrilled with it." I was almost haunted now by the elation in his laugh, his unadulterated victory in Transfiguring us, our consent be damned.

"By about that time, Erickson showed up and sent Hodges and Leary to get Professor McGonagall," Scorpius went on. "Then after she got there and talked to him for a bit, Erickson Disarmed Craglin and we all went up to her office and she contacted all of you."

Everyone was silent and attentive. Dad nodded when Scorpius finished. "Thanks for telling us, boys. You'll probably still need to testify for the Ministry."

"Why can't we just give our memories and have the Wizengamot view them in a Pensieve?" I asked. I'd always wondered that. Wizarding trials always seemed to depend so heavily on witness accounts and testimony, when viewing memories exactly as they were seemed like a much more efficient way of discerning the truth of a situation. No lies or embellishments possible.

Dad nodded, looking a bit surprised. "You could offer that, if you want to, but that's not common. You might still be called to give traditional testimony on top of that, if they have additional questions."

"Craglin said he'd developed the Transfiguration to include a sort of Permanency Charm," Scorpius cut in suddenly, having just finished his plate. Everyone turned to look at him.

"He wanted to create a spell that could turn someone into something, then have them get Transfigured back while permanently retaining some trait of the thing they were Transfigured into. He used some stupid Quidditch excuse for it."

There were gasps and looks of disgust from everyone.

Madam Fairmont, until then completely silent as Scorpius and I said our bit, quickly interrupted. "Wait, you're saying he designed part of an experimental spell to leave the… subjects _altered_? Forever?" She looked outraged.

I looked around. They all looked horrified and angry. I realized this was the first time it had been brought up since we heard it from Craglin himself back in the classroom while we were still Transfigured; McGonagall hadn't included that detail back in her office.

"What didn't get Transfigured back correctly?" Mum asked, suddenly grabbing my arm and looking me over, as though looking for remnants of padded paws or shaggy fur. Draco had moved up in his seat and was staring hard at Scorpius, scrutinizing him the way Mum was scrutinizing me, minus the contact.

I was a bit startled at her intensity and I stuttered, "I – I'm not sure, I feel fine, really."

And it wasn't a lie, I truly didn't feel different. Sore, yes, from the double Transfiguration in the span of only a couple hours, but nothing I wouldn't have expected. I looked over at Scorpius, who shrugged.

"Same, mate. His spell must have failed. It _was_ experimental after all and he was so full of himself that he probably got his spell proportions incorrect. That, or McGonagall managed to undo whatever he thought he made permanent," Scorpius said.

"He's certainly got nothing on her, especially when it comes to Transfiguration," I agreed. "Her counterspell looked and felt very different too, even though she said she got it straight from him. It was green and didn't burn."

"I still want to do exams and cognitive tests anyway," said Madam Fairmont, and our parents all nodded wholeheartedly before Scorpius and I could agree. I guess that decision was made for us, then.

"Ready when you are," I said wryly. I moved the dinner tray off my lap and onto the table next to me and looked pointedly at my parents, who were still sitting by my bed.

They took the hint and stood to leave, Mum leaning over to kiss my forehead and rub my arm. Dad watched me but didn't move, then said, "You know, Al – Albus. Back in the McGonagall's office, when you walked up to us… I couldn't help but think you looked almost exactly the way Sirius looked when he was in his dog form. Huge and shaggy – gave me a bit of a blast from the past, actually." He quirked a fond half-smile, remembering his godfather whom I'd only seen in pictures or heard about in stories.

I suddenly felt the old awkwardness of misunderstanding that we'd wrestled with so much in my fourth year. "A good blast from the past, I hope?" I said, my anxiety getting the best of me.

Did I want to know that I'd unintentionally reminded Dad of his godfather, who was murdered right in front of him by Draco's aunt Bellatrix?

But Dad just smiled, "Yeah, a good one, of course. I thought I'd never see him again."

"And technically you still haven't." I smiled thinly, relieved that he wasn't upset.

He actually laughed at that and clapped his hand over my ankle for a few seconds. "Very true. Write to us if you notice anything different, okay? And tell Professor McGonagall straight away."

"Will do," I said.

They moved away and I looked over to see Draco standing up from where Scorpius had had him in an eager hug. Draco nodded at Madam Fairmont and passed my Dad, saying curtly, "Keep me posted on the investigation."

He didn't wait to see Dad nod his assent, but instead strode purposefully from the Hospital Wing without a backwards glance.

"I need to meet with the Craglins again," Dad sighed. "And I'll probably make the arrest as well. It could take some time."

"I'll surprise Lily for dinner in the Great Hall, then," Mum said. "She should know what happened anyway. And besides, I've missed the Hogwarts cooking."

"What's wrong with my cooking?" Dad asked, mock-insulted, as they started to leave. Mum turned to give me an affectionate wink before linking her arm with Dad's and the two of them walked out of the Hospital Wing.

Madam Fairmont had already drawn the curtains around Scorpius' bed and began to do the same around mine. She performed his exam first, but it sounded as uneventful as mine ended up being. We didn't even get fully undressed, which I was glad for, and Madam Fairmont seemed satisfied with what she found – or _didn't_ find, as it were. She released us both within an hour and, having already eaten, we headed back to the Slytherin Common Room, passing several Housemates as they left for dinner. We had the dormitory to ourselves in a rare moment of luck.

Once the door closed, Scorpius pulled me into a long, comforting kiss. We slowly parted and just held each other, pressing our foreheads together.

"Are you okay?" He asked quietly, seriously. "Actually okay?"

"I think so. Are you?" I stroked my thumb up his jawline and he leaned into it.

He nodded tiredly. "Yeah, I guess so. I think we'll be okay. I'm glad McGonagall got us sorted out quickly, I'm not sure I'd want to be trapped in a wolf's body for the rest of my life."

"You made a cute wolf," I said. He blushed a bit and it was so endearing that I couldn't resist pressing a kiss to his cheek.

"But I'd never get to finish school as a wolf," he whined.

"That's the worst thing you can imagine about being a wolf?" I laughed.

He smirked and lightly swatted my belly. "Go to bed, wolfboy," he said playfully, kissing me once more and pulling away to get ready to settle in for the night. It was too early for bed normally, just barely dinner time, but we were both too tired to do any homework after the afternoon we'd had. We could catch up tomorrow.

As I pulled on my pajamas, I saw that Scorpius had already dressed and was trying to read in bed, but he'd fallen asleep with the book open on his chest. I carefully pulled it off him and marked his page with a quill from his side table. Then I pressed a kiss to his temple and got settled into my own four-poster for the night.

At least that nightmare was over. Right?


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER 5**

Over the following week, things slowly returned to normal. Classes still dragged, homework piled up, and Scorpius and I were growing impatient for the next Hogsmeade weekend. We hadn't had any time to get properly _reacquainted_ after the trauma of the attack and we were itching for some quality private time to decompress. Our fooling around had been limited to stolen kisses in empty corridors, and once – daringly – when Scorpius crept quietly back into the dorm after completing one of his night patrols as Prefect. With the other boys around us asleep, we'd gotten a couple delightful minutes of desperate snogging until one of the boys snored loudly and we'd startled apart.

I'd gotten an owl from home a couple days after the incident saying that the case against Craglin was moving forward and that Scorpius and I would likely be called to testify in a few weeks.

The reason for Craglin's expulsion had been officially kept secret, so naturally the entire school knew within days. It spread like wildfire that the rumors had all been true; that he had been caught experimenting on students. The younger students who had previously been hospitalized mysteriously after their tutoring sessions with Craglin over the past year were either pulled out of school for a day, or else their parents Floo'd in, to complete interviews with McGonagall and members of the Auror's Office conducting the investigation. I'd even spotted Dad a couple times around the castle during that week following up with students and making assurances to families and teachers.

It also made Scorpius and me a kind of fascination for the rest of the school. Everyone wanted to know what exactly he'd done to us, although luckily those details had been mostly kept under wraps – active investigation and all. There were realizations that we'd been Transfigured in some way and now we were beginning to attract analyzing stares from students wherever we went, as though they were looking for any differences whatsoever.

Hodges and Leary had become sort of celebrities, too, suddenly popular amongst the first- and second-years especially. In the few times I'd passed them in corridors between classes, I wasn't surprised to hear them retelling the thrilling tale of skiving off class (like rebel twelve-year-olds do) and then helping save a couple sixth-years. The story was embellished with each retelling. The fourth time I heard it, I couldn't help but roll my eyes as Leary told a group of first-year girls that he'd single-handedly held off Craglin's attack until had McGonagall arrived.

I was more than ready for the circus to end. It seemed that none of the students Craglin had experimented on last year had any lasting effects of the magic performed on them, for which I was grateful. For all his posturing, maybe Craglin really was just a blow-hard. None of his Permanency shit worked.

My head was a mess.

A chance to relax finally presented itself in a shower during a free period. I figured there was no reason to waste a perfectly good wanking opportunity, especially with no one else around in the shared dormitory bathroom. As soon as I lathered up, I got to work stroking, thinking of the last time Scorpius went down on me.

But I noticed that as I became more and more aroused (much too easy to do while thinking of Scorpius), I had a new feature: a bit of partially-raised tissue ringing my cock near the base.

… _the fuck?_

While new and confusing, it didn't trouble me enough to slow my pace and _oh, wow, look at that,_ it only got bigger, darker, and harder the closer I got to the finish line. It felt just as nice getting a rub as the rest of my dick did. _What was this?_ It didn't hurt _– it definitely didn't hurt_ – but I certainly didn't have this before…

The realization hit me hard enough that I stopped my stroking altogether, bringing the build to a screeching halt, my pulse hammering in my ears.

Craglin's attack. _Seriously? He'd actually –?_

My arousal didn't lessen even with the stunning comprehension but when I got back to it, much slower this time, I took more care to pay attention to the odd ring, now flushed a deep red. I stroked at it gingerly with my left hand, my right hand never ceasing its pulls.

The ring was growing with every throb of my pulse. It was tight and hard under my fingertips, but didn't seem to be applying any extra pressure to my cock.

I felt the end nearing and briefly considered slowing down to drag it out a bit; back away from the crest so I could enjoy the build again. But I had Herbology class in an hour and I hadn't grabbed lunch or finished the homework yet. No teasing delayed-gratification today.

I leaned back against the wall when I knew I was about to blow. It turned out this was a life-saving decision because when I did tip over the edge, I found myself suddenly sprawled on the tile floor of the shower, having slid down the wall and feeling like the air had been punched out of my lungs. For a moment, I thought stupidly that I'd been attacked, hit with a Stunner or something by another student but there was still no one there. My mind blurred, too clouded with a hot, ripping pleasure that made me see stars and seemed to make every muscle in my body simultaneous seize up and turn to liquid.

 _Woah. What the bloody hell…?!_

Air was only just returning to my lungs. What little of my logic remained forced me to gulp as much oxygen as I could and calm down, but the orgasm still hadn't receded, the waves pulling me under again and again. What little air my lungs managed to suck in just got spent on my disbelieving, rapturous moan.

I was only peripherally aware that my hand was still working furiously, each drag down my length zinging my brain over and over. I couldn't seem to do or feel or think anything but _fuck yes… what the fuck… so good… fuuuuck…!_

It didn't stop. I was trapped in a cyclical bliss. Just when I thought I was getting close to coming to the usual end, I was right back on top of that ledge again. I stumbled over it once more and was completely helpless. What was left of my mind vaguely registered that my cheek was cold and my temple stung sharply, and I could only just comprehend that I had fallen to my side and hit my head, my face now pressed desperately against the slippery tile.

My left hand suddenly throbbed and I realized I'd either tried to claw or punch the wall, scrabbling for purchase that I knew I simply wouldn't find in a wet shower stall. I lost my precarious balance again and this time my left elbow took the hit. The burn that shot up and down my arm was momentarily enough to dampen some of the desire still eating away chunks of my brain.

But even with my agonized arm, I couldn't stop my right hand from continuing to jerk off, although my wrist was burning. I also couldn't stop my hips' jagged thrusting despite having lost any semblance of discernable rhythm ages ago. I could no longer comprehend the passage of time and whenever I managed to open my eyes I was somehow in a different position on the floor each time, still pulsing cum and sobbing out my ragged groans.

I didn't know how long it lasted. It felt like it would never end. Has anyone in history ever orgasmed to death or would I be the first? Maybe later tonight some poor student would find my dead body crumpled in the shower stall, lying in an impossibly large pool of my own cum.

What an embarrassing letter Professor McGonagall would be forced to write to my parents.

Slowly, very slowly, my faculties returned to me as the aftershocks continued to rack my exhausted body. I became momentarily worried the echo of my cries had attracted a curious or concerned audience, and I held my breath for several seconds, trying to listen for the sounds of approaching visitors while my heart pounded in my ears. But no one else showed up in the bathroom.

 _Still alone, thank Merlin._

I shakily managed to force myself into a sitting position, back to the wall, my forearms draped tiredly over my bent knees, water still splashing over me. I didn't understand how, but I was still trickling cum, although this felt thinner than the usual load.

I dropped my head onto my arms and just… _breathed_. Holy _fuck_ , it was nice to be able to breathe again.

What just happened? That was as literally mind-blowing an orgasm as a person could have without their brain actually exploding. I had never come that hard or that long in my life.

I opened my eyes, and with my head still resting on my arms, I was facing down between my legs. My balls were shriveled and pulled tight against my body. But somehow – _seriously, how?!_ – I was still hard enough to drive nails. The strange, swollen tissue near base was still large and throbbing almost uncomfortably.

This was the first time I'd come since Craglin had Transfigured us. The new feature couldn't be a coincidence, could it?

I leaned back and let the water run down my face, neck and chest. _Grab lunch with Scorpius? Finish my homework in time for class? Make it to Herbology?_ Probably not.

I was suddenly very sleepy, and I seriously considered just lying back down on the grimy, semen-smeared tiles for a quick, soggy nap, and I found it quite disturbing that that idea didn't pass nearly as quickly as it should have.

I was beginning to get light-headed. Were I comfy and dry in bed, this would likely have been the start of an absolutely euphoric afterglow. I could feel myself smiling, and my usually ever-present tension was rapidly leaving my shoulders. I felt almost unsteady in my contentment. I was exhausted and spent but I'd have given anything to be wrapped up in Scorpius' arms right then, cozy and warm in his four-poster.

The stray thought of Scorpius cleared my head just a little, enough for me to realize that I needed to get cleaned up. Ironic, since I was here for a shower anyway but ended up messier than when I started. I stayed seated on the floor and luckily my soap bottles were on the floor as well. I rewashed myself as well as I could while staying seated, and I only just managed to push myself up to standing to finish my back and legs.

I spun the shower handle to cold, hoping the chill would wake me out of my stupor as well as help kill this oddly persistent hard-on. I forced myself to stand in the freezing shower as long as I could, until my skin started to hurt from the cold. Then I shut off the water and reached blindly past the curtain for my towel, which I mashed it against my face, sighing deeply.

 _I need to talk to Scorpius._

I missed Herbology just like I thought I would. It was just as well because even though I was able to unsteadily dry and dress, the odd swelling on my cock didn't disappear for nearly another hour after I got out of the shower. My erection had also finally wilted but even now, I felt raw. Like I was still in that over-sensitive refractory period where even the lightest brush is on the wrong side of painful.

The first thing I noticed after dressing was that I was absolutely famished. I was hungry before my shower, but now that I had showered twice and cum bucket-loads, my head pounded and stomach churned with hunger. There was also the issue of my Herbology homework still not being finished either. I grabbed my supplies for Potions along with my Herbology homework and headed out of the Slytherin dungeons. Lunch would be finished by now, of course, but the House Elves never said no to a student who showed up in the Kitchens looking for extra.

With thirty minutes to spare before Potions began, I ate my sandwich and apple on the way down to the Potions dungeon. With no class before the sixth-year Slytherins and Hufflepuffs took it this afternoon, I had the room to myself to finish my Herbology homework, which I resolved to turn in right after Potions. Better late than never, and I didn't want to run the risk of Professor Longbottom writing my parents about me skiving off class and failing to turn in my work. I didn't need any more drama this week.

I was just waiting for the last of the ink to dry on my parchment when the classroom door opened and my classmates began to trickle in. Scorpius appeared behind a line of Hufflepuffs and spotted me, first looking relieved, and then anxious, as he hurried over to our table in the corner.

"Where have you been, Albus? You missed lunch and Herbology," he murmured, looking concerned. "And you're pale, are you feeling alright?"

"I'm fine," I said automatically, then realized he'd see through it.

"Well, actually, no…" I started, but paused as a trio of Hufflepuff girls pushed past us on their way to their own table.

Scorpius looked expectant, and more worried now that I'd corrected myself and lowered my voice.

"Odd question for you," I said, turning away from the girls and scanning the room quickly. "When was the last time… have you come since the whole thing with Craglin?"

"Have I come…?" He asked, looking confused, and I couldn't blame him. "Come where?"

"No, not – that's not what I meant. I mean –" I looked around, again scanning for nearby students. Leaning in a bit closer to him, I asked quietly, "I mean, have you jerked off since then?"

He quirked an eyebrow and just stared at me. He'd asked how I was feeling, thinking I'd say something normal like that I'd caught a cold but instead I'd just asked him about his last wank.

He glanced around. Professor Dunn has gotten the class settled and was rattling off instructions for the Allergy Alleviation potion we were making this period. We both listened until she turned the group loose, and the classroom filled with the chatter of students and the clinking of equipment as cauldrons were set up and ingredients' vials gathered on tables.

Covered by the din of the classroom, Scorpius leaned over casually as he set up his own materials. He cleared his throat. "Uh, no, I haven't…since then," he said, not looking at me. "Does it matter?"

I licked my lips and didn't look at him directly. "Look, I'm not trying to be a tool, the reason I ask is… I just did. And that's why I missed lunch and class. There's… look, mate, there's something different. And I want to know if you've noticed it, too.

He glanced at me warily under the guise of leaning down to his bag to pull out his cutting board and knife. "What exactly is different?"

I was hunched over my own cauldron, taking more time than necessary to count out my dried eucalyptus leaves. "Well, there's a new sort of… swelling? Near the base. It doesn't hurt or anything," I added quickly, as his looked up at me sharply. "But it gets bigger as – you know – you get closer…?" I glanced around again. The ambient noise had reduced now that the other students were working steadily, and I hoped to Merlin that my voice hadn't carried just then. These stone walls tended to echo.

Scorpius tried to appear only passively interested in what I was saying, and if any of the other students glanced over at him right now he might appear to be just that. But I know this boy too well. His brow furrowed and his gaze sharpened unnecessarily on his vial of honey. His shoulders were stiff as he pulled out the stopper.

"And anyway," I continued, quietly scooting closer to him, "When I finally did… you know… it was like nothing I've ever felt before. It felt like it lasted _hours_. I just completely lost control and all sense of time and direction and balance…"

Professor Dunn was making her rounds, peering into each cauldron in turn, nodding and smiling, or making suggestions to the students.

"Looks like you're on the right track, Mr. Malfoy, that color is just right," she said approvingly, as she stopped at our table. "Slow your heating just a tad, Mr. Potter, and wait a few more minutes before moving on to the next step. Impatience will only result in a curdled potion." We both nodded and tried to look casual as we stayed completely silent. I waited until she'd moved a safe distance away before continuing.

"It was the absolute best, most terrifying… _thing_ I've ever felt." I was sure he understood my unwillingness to drop the "O" word in the middle of class, even with my voice hushed. "And the new swelling? It lasted way afterwards."

The room was filling with the sounds of whistling steam, but I still whispered low as I added, "And I was still hard. The whole time. Nearly an hour later."

Scorpius was drumming his fingers on the table, waiting for his potion to bubble just right before adding in his powdered nettle. He hadn't hardly looked at me since I'd first mentioned the new oddity.

Realizing that I wasn't going to continue, he reached across me – needlessly – to pull the textbook closer to himself. In doing so, he said quietly, "And you're wondering if I've got the new addition, too."

"Uh-huh," I confirmed without looking at him. I probably didn't need to stare so hard into my cauldron for the potion to brew but it was easier than watching Scorpius digest this new information.

"I honestly hadn't noticed, but the other guys have Quidditch practice this evening," he said coolly, trying to sound nonchalant in case anyone overheard him, "so if you'd like to… hang out, we can see what we…find."

Quidditch practice. _Thank Merlin_ for Quidditch practice! And thank Merlin again for the other three boys in our dormitory being starting players for Slytherin House. They'd leave right after dinner at 6 and not be back until at least 9, assuming the Captain worked them as hard as she usually did. We'd have plenty of time to ourselves in that empty dormitory before they hauled themselves to bed tonight.

My mouth had gone a bit dry. I swallowed thickly, anticipating the evening. "Good idea," I said, trying to keep my tone causal and disinterested. We continued our potions in heavy silence.

Scorpius and I chatted comfortably about various things that neither of us cared about and wouldn't remember later as we headed down to dinner. Our minds were too preoccupied with the impending encounter we knew we'd be having. We dropped our bags off in our dormitory, but I remembered to take my Herbology homework with me as we headed back out again. I managed to catch Professor Longbottom as he was walking into the Great Hall for dinner, handing him my parchment roll and explaining that I hadn't meant to skip his class, I'd just been sick all day, flattened by a sudden stomach bug. He nodded understandingly, saying that I did indeed look a bit pale, and that I should really try to keep some food down and get some rest tonight. He reckoned I'd just had a rough week. I accepted the excuse that he'd handed me and didn't argue with him.

All through dinner, Scorpius kept shooting me glances that were just a little too heated for my comfort, especially since we were surrounded by other students. We both know what we were planning on doing as soon as we finished eating and the other guys cleared out of our room. My heart began to race as we finished pudding.

I'd never been this thrilled to see my other roommates getting up from the dinner table. I nodded to Scorpius, but he was already out of his seat having noticed them as well. We followed at a reasonable distance and entered the Common Room a minute after they disappeared into our dormitory. While Scorpius stayed behind, surreptitiously claiming a chair by the fire with a random book he sourced from a nearby table propped open on his lap, I walked into our room, passing the other three guys as they headed out, laden with brooms and Quidditch robes.

"Match against Gryffindor next Saturday, yeah?" I asked casually. "Practice hard, I'm betting my sister ten galleons you'll crush them."

We weren't particularly close, these guys and me, but they appreciated a little Gryffindor-bashing even when it came from a loser like me. The Slytherin Potter knocking the House his whole family have been in for generations? Always worth a smirk and a clap on the shoulder, at least.

They noisily left the Common Room tailed by the other players and several younger students wanting to watch practice rather than do their homework. Scorpius bounded through the doorway to our dormitory less than a minute later. He shut the door quickly and set about warding it with his usual cocktail of spells that assured our privacy whenever we were angling for time alone together.

I was seated on the end of my four-poster watching him. With his spell work finished, he turned to me, wide-eyed and giddy. I couldn't help but smile fondly.

He crossed the room quickly and pulled me into a kiss.

I'd missed this _so_ much.

I was briefly tempted to remind him that we actually did have a fact-finding mission tonight, not just a routine snog. But he was loosening my tie and tugging my shirt out of my trousers and I figured that we'd have each other naked soon enough anyway. Might as well enjoy the ride.

We spent a solid half hour of our precious time alone just gripping each other and pulling off clothes and kissing. I would have loved to be able to take my time making out with him for as long as I pleased, but the clock was ticking. The clock was always ticking.

I had him flopped on his back on my bed, his lips kiss-ravaged and bright red by the time I pulled his pants off and tossed them carelessly in the general direction of his trunk. I climbed back up, straddling his slim waist and mouthed at his throat while his fingernails dragged greedily over my scalp.

"Didn't you say you wanted to check something?" He gasped.

 _Oh, right, yes, I did._

I sat up and looked down at him. If I had been trying to catch my breath, watching him pant with his white hair mussed against my green sheets and his silver eyes darkened with lust wasn't doing me any favors. He was completely alluring.

Rather than slide off him – _what a terrible idea that sounded like_ – I instead grabbed his hand and guided it to my cock. He automatically started stroking the second he had me in hand, which made me hiss with satisfaction, and I selfishly let him continue for several heartbeats. Then I took his wrist gently to stop his movements and instead carefully guided his hand over the strange ring-like bump on my cock. It was only barely raised right now, and actually, I wasn't even hard.

I frowned. That struck me as quite odd. When had thirty minutes of stripping, snogging and petting ever not gotten me hard?

Scorpius noticed too and was looking just as confused as I felt. He looked up at me, mock-insulted. "What, nothing?"

I chuckled and finally did move off him, struggling to settle on my side next to him. _These beds are too damn small._

"Trust me, it isn't you. You _know_ it isn't you," I said, kissing his cheek. "But like I told you in Potions, I came harder than I ever have in my life barely six hours ago. Maybe a super long orgasm equals a super long refractory period?"

He shrugged, having no other explanation just then. He turned onto his side too, and gently took me in hand again, letting his thumb gently bump over the ring which was still visible and minutely raised, even in my flaccid state.

"So this is it," he said, almost more to himself than to me.

I hummed my confirmation, pulling my pillow under my head and closing my eyes as he continued his inspection. Never interrupt Scorpius when he's trying to learn something new.

His fingers halted their examination and disappeared. I opened my eyes to see that he was now cradling his own cock, which was as hard as mine should have been.

And we both noticed together that yes, he did indeed have the same, raised bit of flesh, ringing all the way around his dick near the base. His thumb slowly dragged across it repeatedly, gently pushing and scraping; he was investigating more than masturbating.

"See?" I said. "It doesn't hurt or anything. But look, it's bigger and darker than mine. That's what mine looked like earlier today."

"And it got bigger as you went on?"

"Oh, way bigger. Looked like it should have hurt, but it didn't. Felt amazing. Heavy."

At the reminder that my own mystery swelling had gotten larger as my orgasm built, Scorpius' hand lost its exploratory touch and he started jacking off in earnest.

"Well then, let's see about that. Walk me through this, Albus," he purred.

Damn. He even made the notion of pseudo-studying sound delightfully arousing.

I knocked his hand away and sat up. I pushed my pillow towards him and he took it, rolling onto his back once more and settling languidly into my pillow. In that moment, I couldn't recall the last time we'd been able to be this intimate with each other. We'd been stuck making do with stolen kisses here and there; I hadn't been able to go down on him – or vice versa – in what felt like weeks.

I hungrily sucked him down and reveled in the sounds that it pulled from his throat. I tried to match my bobbing to my stroking of his rapidly-swelling ring. I felt his hips starting to roll under me, his fists in my hair holding me still for him while I let him grind into my mouth several times, before pushing him back down and releasing him from my mouth. He whined just a little, but I gave him a pointed nod at his cock where the ring has swollen to more than double its size when he'd first noticed it.

For a moment, he was back to analyzing it; staring at it the way he stared at incantations he hadn't yet learned in his textbooks: desperately greedy to learn. But then he distracted himself from his geek-out with his own touch. He exhaled roughly and settled back down against my pillow again and continued his pumping, letting his eyes flutter closed as he found a steady rhythm.

"You're going to love this," I whispered to him, the sight of him splayed and tossing on my bed nearly stealing my breath. "You're not going to believe how much you cum. It'll feel like gallons, and it won't stop for… _years_ , it'll seem like."

He groaned and sped up his hand, giving himself a small twist every other stroke. He bit his lip and his breath hitched.

"And the ride itself? Mate, you're going tip over the edge a thousand times. It's not just once with a few waves to ride out and done in seconds. You're going to circle back round again and again." I could vividly remember that almost frightening cycle of pleasure wracking me in the showers earlier.

I couldn't recall just then if Scorpius had applied _Muffliato_ to the room when he was warding the door earlier. He probably had – he usually does – but just to be safe, I cast another one quickly, knowing that if his peak was anything like mine was earlier, these walls were going to reverberate with it.

"You're almost there. And I'm right here with you." I leaned down and suckled kisses into his quivering abs, and licked up around his nipple. I dragged my hand up over his chest, across one of his shoulders, now shaking with the exertion of his tugging, and up into his hair. Learning that he liked a firm hair pull was a good find indeed.

I gave his scalp a few rough scrapes of my fingernails, which intensified his panting grunts, before gathering a fistful of his silky white hair, now sweat-soaked at the roots.

"So _close_ , Scorpius," I hissed. "Let me watch you fucking come."

And I jerked back the fistful of his hair, startling a gasp out of him that was quickly followed by an even more shocked keen as he staggered over the edge. I watched as the first few waves utterly shook him. He was helplessly lost to it immediately and I wondered if this is what I looked like before: mouth agape, eyes screwed shut, muscles pulled impossibly taut.

I could tell that he was being absolutely blistered by what he was feeling. I'd never heard this many sounds from him. Grunts that stuttered into breathy whines; moans that rang out before shaking into silence as his lost his breath. He hadn't gotten to the sobbing yet. I'll never forget that desperation that I'd felt before. I wanted to fully share that vulnerability with him.

And just like I did earlier, he was practically pouring cum. It was coating his chest and stomach, and I was close enough to him to get hit by ropey streams of it as well. The mass ringing his cock appeared to be about the same size that I recalled mine being, and if I hadn't already experienced this, I'd have said that it looked terribly painful.

But those cries spilling past his lips weren't from pain, just like I know that mine hadn't been either. He briefly opened his eyes and his stare was molten. His mouth slack, breath huffing from him, he watched me and managed to form a pitiful murmur, "F-fuck, Albus… _ohh_ fuck…"

Another wave wracked him, his eyelids slammed shut again and he tossed his head back to the pillow, arching his neck.

His world was falling out from underneath him in the best way possible. _I remember, Scorpius, and I want you to have this, too._

The edges of shock seemed to have worn down a little, because despite the constant trembling, furious wanking, and endless trickle of semen, his hips were settling into a more comfortable rhythm, rocking into his hand hurriedly but without the mindless abandon that he had fallen prey to a couple minutes prior.

His chest was heaving like he was running a race. I readjusted my hold on him, re-fisting his hair, my other hand stroking any part of him I could. I drew my hand across his shoulders, stroking down his chest, scraping over his abs. My hand was soaked with his sweat and cum and he tossed his head again, groaning at the pull of his hair that it caused. His back arched beautifully, and he bared his throat to me. I latched on, but his writhing caused my teeth to drag, which made him whine worse than ever.

"I've got you, Scorpius," I whispered to him, stroking up his pecs. "Look at you. Merlin, you are _gorgeous_."

He was starting to slow his pace, his body still twitching. I alternated between kissing his cheeks and neck, and whispering things in his ear; some sweet, some dirty, some reverent.

His high faded bit by bit. I was exhausted just from watching him. He panted as his body finally went limp. He flexed his right hand and wrist, shaking out his hand, before letting it fall to his side. He whimpered, every nerve-ending overstimulated, but still he managed to turn his head toward me.

"Albus?" He asked, in the smallest, most ragged voice I've ever heard from him. He almost broke my heart with his helplessness. Then he took a couple more rattling breaths and passed out in my arms.

He awoke around a quarter of an hour later looking fairly lucid for the first time since I pointed out the swelling. He smiled and raised a shaky hand to pull me down into a slow kiss.

"You okay?" I asked when we pulled back.

"That was…" He choked, his throat dry. "That's what you went through today? Alone?"

I frowned a little. He looked so sad just then. "Yeah, well, I didn't know it would be that intense. But it was incredible, right? I wanted you feel that."

His eyelids drooped shut and he nodded vaguely. "I think my brain melted."

"And you looked amazing, coming like that."

Another small smile, another kiss.

"I'm still hard, how is this happening?" He asked. He raised his head and looked down his body, catching sight of the swelling, still large and deep red. He flopped back down against the pillow.

"I don't know, mate," I said, sighing. "This whole thing is just fucking bonkers."

Scorpius was gazing at me in a way that made me blush. For all the fooling around we'd done, I realized we'd never been this truly intimate mentally and emotionally. In all honesty, it frightened me a little.

"We'll figure it out, Albus." He stretched out, long and lithe on my bedsheets. I released my hold on him and grabbed my wand from my bedside table. I cast a Cleaning Charm over his heated skin, removing all the sticky traces of his release. He sighed in relief.

I checked my watch. A little after 8 o'clock. We were getting down to the wire. I wasn't sure how much longer we had before our roommates returned and wondered why our door was warded, the room humid with our scent.

"Can you stand? We have to get dressed before the others come back from practice."

He sat up, sore and exhausted, erection and odd swelling both still straining. He gave himself several long seconds getting his head in order before pushing himself up from the bed and stumbling weak-kneed to his own four-poster a few feet away.

He always left his pajamas neatly folded on his bed, the prim nerd. He took a steadying breath before starting to pull them on. I redressed too, then strode over to him, and helped him slip his shirt on. He made a grab for his own wand and cast a few spells to freshen the air a bit. He looked up at me, so tired but sated. I couldn't resist planting a long kiss to his lips.

"We'll have to talk about this tomorrow but right now I'm beat," he said hoarsely. "I can't believe you managed to stay awake and go to class after that today."

I wasn't sure how I had done either. Perhaps the shock and biting urge to be with Scorpius had kept me functional for the rest of the day.

"Thank you, Albus," he said quietly, sincerely. "I'm not sure what the hell we've gotten ourselves into this time but I… I'm thrilled I get to have another mad adventure with you."

My heart soared at his words but I managed to tamp it back down. "Mayhem to the nth degree, right?" I grinned. A weak attempt at covering my massive rush of affection for him.

We shared one more kiss and I tried to put every ounce of honesty and contentment that I was feeling into it. He pulled away with a tiny lick to my bottom lip, before settling himself back down on his bed.

Then he pointed his wand at the door and undid all his wards. I moved across the room to verify that the door was unlocked and that any evidence of our activity was gone. When I turned back, Scorpius was sound asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER 6**

The next day, I was unpacking my books at our table before first-period Defense Against the Dark Arts when Scorpius suddenly slid into the seat next to me.

"It's called a knot." He said simply.

"Sorry?"

"It's somethings canids do during mating," he continued with the same delight he always did when he'd made a new discovery of some kind. "Males have a knot, it swells during mating and it essentially locks the male and female together for the duration of ejaculation. They're basically stuck until the knot's swelling goes away. And that can take a while."

Scorpius had left the dormitory early this morning, grabbing a quick breakfast directly from the Kitchens before running off to the library. He looked energized now and I noticed there was an additional glow about him. He must have slept incredibly well. His eyes were alight, his hair seemed to shimmer in the morning sunshine streaming in through the windows. Or maybe I was just imagining things to be brighter, more wondrous. Minutes-long orgasms must have that effect, apparently.

"I don't know if McGonagall wasn't able to complete the reverse Transfiguration, or if the mandrake potion wasn't potent enough to undo the last bit, or if Craglin really did manage to get that bastardized Permanency Charm to work, but either way, I think a knot is what it has to be," Scorpius said, breathless and glowing with his realization.

I stared out the window in disbelief. "He did it. He actually managed to make his spell do what he'd wanted all along," I said feeling a bit faraway, both awed and aggravated.

"Was that his intent, though?" Scorpius was skeptical but intrigued. "He meant to give us _that particular_ bit of wolf anatomy? Not improved senses or even fuzzy ears, but a mutated dick?"

I grinned despite myself. "You weren't complaining about your mutated dick last night," I reminded him, trying to keep my voice down as the classroom began to crowd with students. He gave me a saucy smile.

"It was certainly fun…for research purposes," he teased, eyeing me.

Class was called to order and we were instructed to read and complete the quiz questions at the end of the chapter in silence. As such, Scorpius and I continued our conversation on parchment, subtly moved between us while the teacher sat quietly at his desk, barely acknowledging the class.

Scorpius wrote first: _Maybe it's just a random thing, the lasting trait that gets selected in the Transfiguration. Craglin even said he didn't know what trait would stick, remember? Maybe had it hit the other boys, they'd have ended up with something totally different._

I answered: _Maybe, but what are the odds then that we both got knots? Why didn't you get to keep your cute fluffy tail while I got to keep the incredible eyesight or something?_

Scorpius wrote back, a small smirk on his face: _You thought my tail was cute? Are you hitting on me?_

 _That's a good point, though. Maybe one spell equals one trait? We were both wrapped up by the same incantation. Although I'm not sure Craglin really is enough of a bastard to make a spell that specifically alters people's junk._

He saw me shrug before I wrote back: _So what do we do about it? Set up an appointment to meet with McGonagall and drop our pants and point it out to her?_

Scorpius nearly laughed when he read it, but smothered it with a believable cough before writing again:

 _She might consider that to be a tad bit forward, but if you insist…_

 _We can't possibly have normal sex lives with this, we'll be explaining it to everyone we want to be with. Awkwaaaard!_

I read his last word in the ridiculous sing-song voice of his that I knew so well. I wrote back: _True enough. How are you feeling, by the way?_

Scorpius looked fleetingly troubled and his eyes darted around the quiet classroom a bit, but I could also tell that he'd been thinking about what happened last night and was dying to talk about it.

He couldn't keep the blush out of his cheeks as he scribbled his answer. He looked at me shyly while nudging the parchment back to me. _It was amazing, Albus. I can't wait until we can do it again. Together, this time._

I was unable to contain my smile or ignore the lurch of my heart, speeding up at the thought of having that impossibly long ride through ecstasy again with Scorpius doing the very same right along with me. I was already visualizing the two of us clinging to each other helplessly, arching and rolling together, moaning on shared breath.

I was surprised the sudden fantasy, intense as it was, didn't get me hard. Something to ponder later. I risked a quick brush over Scorpius' knee under the desk and he sighed softly as we continued our assigned reading in silence.

During the last class of the day, Scorpius and I both had a free period. That meant 90 minutes before dinner where we had the dormitory to ourselves. Scorpius insisted on getting some homework done since we'd gotten absolutely nothing finished the night before. I indulged his request for nearly an hour and then couldn't take it anymore. He was absent-mindedly running the feather tip of his quill against his cheek as he read through his Arithmancy book. I shoved the parchment with my half-finished Defense homework into my textbook to keep my place, then got up and crossed to his bed. I lightly dragged my finger along the same route his quill was taking over his pale cheek and he smiled serenely without looking up from his book.

It wasn't until I pressed several kisses to his cheeks and jaw that he set the book down and gave me his full attention. We caught each other's lips as he turned to face me.

"So do you actually want to try to figure out how to… fix this?" I asked tentatively, pulling back from him. I'd been thinking about our parchment chat all day long, and although it had been playful then, my innate anxiety had me wondering if he'd truly meant getting help in transfiguring completely back to normal.

His eyes flicked to me warily, then he sat back with a knowing look on his face. He knew my unease all too well.

He tugged me forward so that I was sitting next to him on the bed and he took my hand, pressing his lips to my fingers.

"I'm not sure we need to fix what isn't broken, Albus," he said gently. "Neither of us got hurt. As for future partners like I mentioned…" he trailed off, shrugging. "We could probably figure out how to transfigure it back on our own, if necessary. I mean, if it really, truly came to it. Or maybe a lover wouldn't really care. It's such a small difference overall."

He hadn't released my hand, and instead left it to rest on top of his thigh, his thumb still stroking over my knuckles.

"Why? Are you having second thoughts about keeping it?" He asked, looking concerned. His stroking stopped, but he continued to hold my hand.

"No," I said quickly, releasing a breath that I didn't know I'd been holding. "No, I was just… you wrote it earlier and I was thinking maybe you didn't want it in the long run. I mean, it would be tough, wouldn't it? With a…a wife, you know?" It felt so odd to be discussing other partners – let alone _wives_ – with him. "The knot gets scary big, and being locked together until the swelling fades, like you said? That could really hurt someone. Especially since we can only barely control it, and we were both swollen and still hard for nearly an hour afterwards."

His knowing smile gained a tinge of fondness. He grasped my hand on his thigh with both hands as he leaned forward a bit. I was startled by the warmth.

"When did you get so considerate and sweet, Albus Potter?" He teased softly, just inches away from me. I could steal a kiss from those lips so easily right now.

"Well, you see, I had this crappy idea a couple years ago that almost broke the world with my short-sightedness and I figured I should start making a little more effort," I said, trying and failing to be nonchalant with him so close and looking at me with more affection than I felt I deserved. I felt heat rising up my neck and cheeks and I looked away. He leaned in to nuzzle my cheek, pressing the tiniest of kisses near my ear.

"Well, I'm definitely interested in exploring our new bits, and if we ever feel the urge to change it back, we'll cross that bridge when we get there. We have each other for this," he said reasonably, still nuzzling along my jaw. I almost didn't hear him, the press of his cheek was more distracting than I thought it could be.

We continued our snuggling for a bit longer until he nibbled my sweet spot below my ear, causing a fierce shiver to drill down my spine and I had to sit back to avoid tipping off the bed.

"Okay then," I sighed, relieved. "I'm in. I can't wait to have another go at it, honestly. I mean, our dicks are upgraded now, I think it's totally logical that we put the knot through its paces."

He laughed. "Well, you know me – always up for studying. And sex with you. Since this combines those two endeavors, yeah, I'm a happy, horny nerd."

"Cock 2.0: Knot edition," I grinned.

We laughed and kissed for a bit longer before he pushed at me and instructed me to get back to my homework. I grudgingly climbed back onto my bed and reopened my Defense textbook, looking down at my essay. It didn't hold my interest the way Scorpius' handsome face did, now that he was once again absorbed in his reading, and my chest tightened, suddenly giddy. A new adventure lay ahead of us and I couldn't wait.

The inquiry Dad had opened against Craglin must have been moving quickly because Scorpius and I each received official summons to appear before the Wizengamot the following Thursday. Scorpius was visibly nervous about giving testimony, and while I tried to maintain an outward appearance of nonchalance, I was feeling apprehensive as well.

Scorpius was dead-set on making sure we were both caught up on homework by that Wednesday evening, even asking professors for our homework for Thursday early so we wouldn't be too far behind. Mostly I thought focusing on extra work helped keep his mind off the prospect of having to relive the attack in front of an entire courtroom.

The next morning, we awoke earlier than usual and dressed quickly and quietly in our usual school slacks and shirts, but left off anything with obvious Hogwarts markings. After throwing on plain black robes, we walked up to the Headmistress' office. It was still early, before most of the school was even awake. With the place to ourselves, Scorpius took my hand as we wound our way through the school.

A couple corridors away from the Headmistress' office, Scorpius slowed me down for a moment and pulled me into an alcove that hadn't yet caught any of the thin rays of winter sunlight. He pulled me close and tenderly stroked a hand along my jaw, cupping my face and kissing me slowly.

"It'll be fine," I said as we pulled away, reading his apprehension and trying to soothe his nerves. He was usually so bubbly and twitchy but this morning he was uncharacteristically somber and still. I pulled him into a deep, firm hug. I held him until he sighed and pressed his face into my neck. I let him just breathe and hold on to me until he seemed to calm himself enough to pull back with a weak smile.

"What's your plan?" He asked softly.

"Plan? Well, we can't lie under oath," I said. "And anyway, I would still prefer to just give them the Pensieve memory and be done with it. They'll see exactly how it happened and then maybe we can get out of there sooner."

"Do we tell them about the knot?" Scorpius asked in a tiny voice. "I really don't want to be on record discussing my dick in front of my dad and the entire Wizengamot, you know?"

I couldn't help the nervous laugh that escaped me. I'd have been lying if I'd said that I hadn't had the exact same fear.

"Yeah, me too, mate," I said, stroking a hand up and down his back, my other arm still clutching him tightly to my chest. "If it comes to it, I think we can request to give private testimony with the Chief Warlock, in which case it'll be a super weird few minutes with some old guy that we'll never see again, but at least then it's not out in the open and our parents don't have to hear about it."

It was the best comfort I could offer against a worry we both had. I had no idea what would happen to us if people found out about the knot. Would we be pulled out of school and admitted to St. Mungo's for testing and treatment? I could just imagine the conversations with the other patients:

" _So what are you being treated for?"_

" _Venomous Tentacula bite. You?"_

" _I've got a wolf dick."_

Yeah, no thanks.

I pulled Scorpius out of the alcove and we made the last bit of our trek through the castle before ending up in front of McGonagall's office.

"Magpie," Scorpius said to the gargoyle, which leapt aside and we ascended the winding staircase.

Professor McGonagall was waiting for us inside her office, with her cloak pulled on over her nightgown. She offered us a plate of toast with beans and glasses of pumpkin juice. We ate quickly in silence before she threw a handful of Floo powder into the fireplace.

"Potter, you first," she said. "Your father is waiting for you and will escort you both to the Court's chambers."

The unease that had disappeared with the kiss from Scorpius has suddenly returned with a vengeance and I hoped that brushing the toast crumbs off onto the plate was a good enough cover for my shaking hands.

"Ministry of Magic," I said clearly, after stepping into the warm, tickling emerald flames. I was spun away from her office and stopped moments later at another large grate, this one lined with shiny black tile.

I stepped out and sure enough, there was Dad waiting calmly several feet away, with his hands stuffed casually in his pockets and a soft smile on his face. Other witches and wizards were appearing out of other grates around me, dusting off briefcases and travelling cloaks as they made their way down the corridor. A few people greeted Dad as they passed him.

I strode to stand next to him and he clapped me on the shoulder, saying, "'Morning, Albus," and I nodded my greeting in return swallowing thickly; the Floo ride had unsettled my nervous stomach even more.

Scorpius climbed out of the grate a few seconds later, dusting himself off and waiting for a grumpy-looking wizard to stalk past him before walking over to us. "Good morning, Mr. Potter," he said, smiling tightly. Ever polite, even in his anxiety.

"Good to see you, boys," Dad said, smiling at Scorpius and leading us down the corridor. "Your father will be here shortly, Scorpius. This hearing really shouldn't take too long. Nate's doing the right thing, he confessed to the unauthorized study of Restricted books, as well as developing new experimental spells and using them on both himself and other students. You should both be finished and back to school by lunch time."

His smile was easy, like this was just another day at the office for him – and I suppose it probably was – but I didn't feel as relieved as I should have at his casual attitude.

"Why are we here, then?" I asked, a bit more harshly than I'd intended. Dad raised his eyebrows a bit at my tone. I lowered my voice. "I mean, if he's confessed, why do they need us to testify at all?"

"Evidence for sentencing, mostly," Dad answered as he led us around a corner into a large lobby, where we were asked to submit our wands for identity verification and pick up our visitor badges. "We know what he admitted to, but there's a chance he omitted details on the severity of his experiments and attacks in an effort to reduce his sentencing. The Wizengamot want to know just how far he went, and with the lack of physical evidence since the other children he experimented on are healed now, they need all the oral testimony they can get."

"Can I do the Pensieve memory?" I asked as my wand was handed back to me, then added quickly, "just so I don't forget any details. Since you just said how important it is that they collect as much testimony as they can."

The reason _why_ is a lie, of course.

"You're still looking at that option?" Dad sounded a bit surprised and looked at me curiously as I pinned my visitor badge to my robes. We started off again down another long corridor before getting into a lift.

"I would have assumed talking about it would be less personal and invasive than showing anyone the inside of your head, but I'm impressed if you're still willing to do that." He really was proud of me for that decision, I could see it in his eyes. I wished I could've enjoyed the feeling of gaining a bit of his respect, but I just couldn't right then. My stomach was still churning and my mind was racing.

He mistook my motivation, too. I wasn't trying to be overly thorough for the benefit of the trial, or – Merlin-forbid – _brave_. Mostly I just didn't want to relive the event, and I didn't want Scorpius to have to do so either. I wanted to get it out of my head and then leave the Wizengamot to poke and prod at it as they saw fit. Sitting in a chair being stared down by a massive council of witches and wizards for hours on end talking through it sounded endlessly worse to me.

The lift came to a stop and Dad led us out. We turned down another long, black-tiled corridor.

"Plus, if they see it in the Pensieve, they wouldn't need both of us to formally testify, would they?" I asked, hopeful, nearly begging. "They'll see Scorpius and me the whole time in the memory, we were never apart from the time we were stopped by Erickson to when we left the Hospital Wing that evening and went back to our dormitory. If Scorpius testified, it would just be completely redundant."

I spared a glance back at Scorpius who looked shocked for a moment, but then it faded into raw adoration. He was more afraid of this than I was, and I wanted to spare him whatever torment I could.

Dad nodded vaguely, "Perhaps. I'll let them know of your intent and see what they say." He smiled again reassuringly and stopped at a door labeled 'Courtroom 3' and pulled it open for us. I entered first, Scorpius on my heels and Dad following us in, closing the door behind us.

The chamber was huge and circular, with bench seating on so many levels climbing up the walls that it seemed impossible, even by magical standards. A group of what looked to be nearly a hundred witches and wizards, all dressed in robes of deep red, sat chatting amongst themselves as we entered.

"Chief Warlock Donovan, my son has an offer to make," Dad addressed the group at large in a commanding, carrying voice. His 'Harry Potter, Head of Magical Law Enforcement' voice.

It made most of the group stop tittering and look over at us curiously. "Albus would like to offer into evidence a Pensieve memory of the event in question, viewable to any and all members of the Wizengamot at your leisure."

This must have been a rare proposition indeed because it set the red-robed group abuzz once again, although this time they were looking at me. I felt my cheeks heat and my palms began to sweat.

An older wizard with a thick black and gold braided cord over his robes whom I assumed was Chief Warlock Donovan, looked over and asked, "In lieu of traditional testimony?"

"In lieu of, or supplemental to. That decision is, of course, at the Court's discretion." He looked over at me pointedly. "Albus understands that he can be asked to do both if you require it."

I looked from Dad to the council and nodded jerkily.

"Very well," said Donovan, his smile rather kindlier than I would have expected. "That's a more generous offer than we usually receive in these sorts of proceedings. Give us a moment to deliberate."

He turned his back to us and the hushed chattering started anew.

The door we just entered through opened again to reveal Draco, looking a touch nervous and irritable. Scorpius lit up and Draco gave him a small smile, his expression not nearly as hard when looking at his son.

"Albus is offering up his memory of the incident, for the Pensieve," Scorpius told him quietly. "If they accept it, it might be enough to avoid me having to testify at all." Draco looked over at me, quirking an eyebrow and tilting his head ever so slightly, which I took to mean that he was at least mildly impressed.

"Maybe," I said gloomily, rubbing my sweaty palms down the front of my robes. "They're still deciding if they'll even accept my memory as evidence at all, let alone if it'll count enough for the two of us."

I wanted so badly to wrap my arms around Scorpius. It was a risk even thinking about doing it – being tempted to do so not only in front of our fathers but in a Courtroom with a hundred others looking on. For an insane moment, I nearly forgot that and barely resisted the urge to take Scorpius' hand. I shoved my hands in the pockets of my robe and started to pace around, away from where the others were standing.

"We accept the offer," a voice resounded from across the chambers suddenly. I whipped around and saw that Donovan was smiling at me and beckoning me over. "Albus, if you'll follow me please, we'll head to my office where we store the Wizengamot's Pensieve."

"Sir?" Dad asked as I started across the room. "He's still underage –"

"Yes, of course, Mr. Potter, you may come, too. Mr. Malfoy, if you and your son would stay here with the rest of the Wizengamot for the time being, please."

"Yes, sir," Draco nodded and ushered Scorpius over to a bench on a low level near the door. As he sat, Scorpius flashed me a double thumbs-up and a radiant smile.

Dad and I followed Donovan and two other Wizengamot members through a door at the other end of the Chamber. The office was plusher than I would have imagined a courtroom office would be. Small and cozy rather than professional, stacks of parchment on several tables, books scattered in haphazard piles around mismatched chairs near a lit fireplace. It was more like the den in someone's home than an office at work.

"Albus, take a seat, please," Donovan said while he opened a cabinet to retrieve a shallow basin and placed it upon the large handsome wooden desk. "Are you familiar with the spell to pull out memories?"

"No, sir."

"I'm not surprised. As I recall, that generally isn't taught until N.E.W.T.-level," he nodded absently. "It's exclusively non-verbal but actually quite simple. Just touch your wand to your temple while recalling, as clearly as you can, the incident you wish to share. You won't need to think of every detail, the spell will pick up the exact event. You just need to guide the spell through the timeline. First and last moments are most essential."

I tried to decide when to start and stop the memory. I thought hard, trying to remember if I said anything terribly indicative of my relationship with Scorpius directly before or after getting stopped by Erickson. He flirted a bit when I suggested being a Prefect made him 'fun police' but maybe they'd ignore the overtones.

I decided I had to give them the complete memory, embarrassing as it may or may not have been. I asked for this, did I not?

I sighed, getting nervous. "Okay, yeah, I know where to start and stop."

"Excellent," said Donovan jovially. "Be thinking of that while nonverbally casting _'Dividere memoriae'_. As you pull your wand away, you'll feel the memory come with it. You won't forget the memory, you'll just provide us with a copy."

It seemed like an odd time to be getting a spell lesson, and extra stressful that I was expected to get this right on my first try, while standing in front of the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, as part of my testimony in a criminal hearing. But Donovan was smiling at me much the way granddad Arthur always did – patient, attentive and encouraging.

So I tried it before I lost my nerve. I started with Erickson coming out of his classroom and spotting us, and fast-forward through the events of the next couple hours, all the way until we're settled in the Hospital Wing, getting our exams done by Madam Fairmont.

 _Dividere memoriae._

I was suddenly reeling, suffocating in my own head, like my memories had indeed multiplied in that moment. My head felt heavy and I had a tough time thinking about much else besides the incident. I wasn't just recalling it, it almost felt as though I was reliving it. I could see the terror on the boys' faces as Scorpius pulled them to the ground; I could feel the confusion and pain of the initial transformation; I could hear Craglin's cackle of excitement as he saw us changed for the first time; I could feel the bolt of worry in my gut as McGonagall pointed her wand at us upon entering the classroom; I could see Mrs. Craglin's tears as McGonagall read out the allegations; I could see the shock on our parents' faces as they spun around and saw us; I could feel my embarrassment and regret as I saw Mum's horror at watching my painful second transformation; I could feel...

I could feel someone's finger lightly tapping the back of my wand hand.

That wasn't part of the memory...

I was jolted back to the present, back to the Chief Warlock's office. I shakily pulled my wand away and the dizzying feeling faded the farther away I pull my wand. I opened my eyes – _when had I closed them?_ – and looked down at my wand. There, dangling from the tip, was a long strand of what looked like mist made solid. It was shimmering and fragile, and for a moment I was completely mesmerized by the beauty of it. I managed to drop it delicately into the Pensieve, where it swirled like ink in water.

"Well done, Albus," Dad whispered, beaming and squeezing my arm. I twitched a relieved smile at him and let out a breath unevenly.

"Indeed, very well done, Mr. Potter," said Donovan brightly. "McCandless and Ellingsworth here will view it with me" – he nodded to the witch and wizard who came into the office with us – "and then we will meet back with you when we're finished. Depending on what we see, we may ask for more detail on events before or after what you provided just now. If we accept this in lieu of traditional testimony, we'll let you know and open the viewing up to the other members of the Wizengamot."

"Yes, sir, whatever you need," I said, relief making me politer than usual and I stood up, ready to leave.

"Chief, if I may –" Dad interrupted. Everyone looked up at him.

"Would it be alright if I view it as well?" Dad asked, not looking at me but at Donovan instead. "I normally listen to testimony in court proceedings and this is essentially the same."

Donovan paused for a moment and then said thoughtfully, "Yes, I suppose it would be about the same. And there's nothing you could do to alter it while viewing so it's unlikely there were would be a conflict of interest resulting from you seeing it, despite your relationship." He looked back at me and teased lightly, "Albus, I hope you haven't included anything you wouldn't mind your dad seeing."

He had a grandfatherly twinkle in his eye, but I felt compelled to stutter out, "Well, I just gave you what happened, I didn't include or delete anything."

Donovan nodded, still smiling. "Of course, my boy, I don't doubt that. But you'd be fine with your dad watching as well?"

I had to think fast. It was one thing to let a few strangers that I'll never see again watch a bit of flirting between me and my best mate/kind-of-boyfriend/fuck-friend, but it's quite another to let my dad see it and run the risk of him potentially telling Mum. Or Draco. And I have no idea which of those two could be worse.

No. No, I'm certain the flirting was fairly tame. It could be construed as buddy-buddy joking.

 _Plus, If I say no, it'll look more suspicious._

"Sure," I said automatically, hoping I didn't sound like I was trying so hard to be comfortable with the idea. "Yeah, totally fine. Just maybe… don't tell Mum about my language?" I asked, hoping to cover for my awkward pause. Concern over bad language is an acceptable decoy reason, right?

It worked. Everyone chuckled a bit and Dad rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "I think your mother could handle the foul-mouthed nature of a couple sixteen-year-old boys in a stressful situation, but sure. This will just be between you and me, if that's what you want." He clapped me on the shoulder and I sighed, feeling a bit better about the whole thing.

"Now then, Albus, you're excused to go wait back in the Chambers," said Donovan. "I imagine, based on what we already know of the timeline of the incident, that you gave us a couple hours' or so worth of memory, so we'll be that long viewing it."

I nodded, eager to leave. My anxiety returned. Now that I had approved the idea of strangers – _and my dad_ – looking around inside my head, watching my experience directly, I wanted to be as far away from them as possible while it was happening.

"Thank you, sir," I said, and headed out. As I left, I heard Donovan saying genially to the small group, "Shall we, then?" before the door shut behind me.

The morning passed slowly and dully. Several members of the Wizengamot had decided to leave to complete work elsewhere since they knew they wouldn't be hearing testimony without the Chief Warlock present. Scorpius and I didn't speak hardly at all. Every now and then, Draco tried to start a conversation with his son, but it would inevitably die out. Scorpius was just too on-edge to focus on discussing coursework or the goings-on at Hogwarts. Eventually, Draco excused himself to the restroom and Scorpius took the opportunity to ask what all I'd showed them.

"Just from Erickson asking for our help to when we got the exams in the Hospital Wing," I reassured him. "Nothing else beyond that. That was of course before we found out about…" I looked around, "…the knots," I finished on a whisper. "And there was nothing particularly flirty or anything, I don't think. It's not like they're able to hear my thoughts or anything with that memory, they're just watching it like they'd walked into the room while it happened."

This seemed to calm him immensely and he nodded, exhaling heavily. "Good. So we should be in the clear."

"I hope so," I smiled thinly at him.

"But you let your dad watch, too?" He asked.

"I kind of felt like I didn't have a choice after he asked," I said, running a hand through my hair. "If I'd said no, he'd have worried, you know? I thought he just wanted to be in the room with me while I did the spell."

He nodded in understanding, and I narrowly resisted the urge to rub his knee seconds before his father returned.

When the door to the office finally opened, nearly three hours after I'd left them to it, everyone in the Chamber went silent and my heart seized up. Draco and Scorpius abruptly ceased their hushed conversation and stood up with me. _This is it._

Chief Warlock Donovan exited first, and was looking the most subdued I'd seen him all day as he climbed the steps up to his raised platform. The other two Wizengamot members followed after him and took their seats silently, not looking at anyone despite getting questioning looks from their colleagues. Dad came out last, closing the door behind him. He looked exhausted and I was jarred to see that he had tears in his eyes as he looked over at me.

"The Wizengamot hereby accepts as evidence the Pensieve Memory from Albus Severus Potter in the case against Nathanial Fletcher Craglin," Donovan said formally, his voice resounding in the large room, the grandfatherly tone from before now gone from his voice. "The rest of the Wizengamot council will need to view the memory and will schedule with me times to do so. For now, Court is adjurned."

Then he banged a gavel on his pedestal and there was a sudden rustling of bench seats an parchment rolls as some of the Wizengamot got up to leave, while other members crowded the three who had watched my memory, eager for details or to schedule their turn to watch it.

Dad strode over to me slowly, hands in his pockets and shoulders hunched, not looking at me.

"Are you… okay?" I asked cautiously. "I'm sorry, I know it was a lot to –"

He didn't say anything but instead pulled me into a crushing hug, which I returned in shock. We hadn't held each other like this since the night in Godric's Hallow when we'd had to watch helplessly as his parents died.

People were beginning to stare as they passed us on the way out of the courtroom, but I resisted the urge to push him away. I could tell he needed this. It hadn't occurred to me that he would be so badly affected by experiencing my memories. He had just seen second-hand my fear and pain, my profound vulnerability. I tightened my grip on him.

After another minute, he let go of me, seeming to have trouble finding the right words. I worried that I'd made the wrong decision in permitting him to participate in the Pensieve viewing.

Dad cleared his throat. "Um, right, you boys are both free to go," he said, recovering somewhat, though his voice was still low and rough. "Chief Donovan says the memory is more than enough evidence and no further testimony is needed, at least for now, from either of you."

Scorpius looked momentarily like he was about to jump for joy at the news, but given my Dad's demeanor, wisely kept his reaction reasonably low-key. "That's great, thank you, Mr. Potter," he says. "You did it, Albus."

"Let's get you boys back to Hogwarts," Dad said resolutely, nodding at me and I turned, eager to escape the stares and whispers.

Draco caught Dad's arm as he passed him and asked, "How much did you see?"

Dad looked so tired. He didn't meet Draco's gaze but instead just said quietly, "I saw it all. It was…" He trailed off, looking haunted for a moment. "Hug your son, Draco. He probably needs it more than you might think." Then he pulled his arm out of Draco's grip and hurried me along with him back out of the courtroom.

Dad kept his arm tight around my shoulders as he walked me back through the Ministry in silence. Several people tipped their hats to him, or else greeted, "Good morning, Harry", to which he simply nodded absently and moved on. I began to feel humiliation settle into my gut. I stubbornly felt that I was a bit too old to be properly _steered_ anywhere, especially through the Ministry of Magic, where Dad's co-workers were all seeing him clutching my shoulder and nearly in tears.

When we were back at the long row of fireplaces, he turned to me, placed both hands on my shoulders, and looked me square in the eye. He still looked terribly troubled.

"Albus, I can't even – I'm so sorry," he said, gathering himself. "The memory didn't show me your perspective exactly, I was just a spectator watching from the outside, but it was bad enough. I can't believe he did that to you and Scorpius. I didn't understand the extent of it, how painful and frightening it must have been. And I'm so proud of you for helping get those two boys out of the way in time. They were so scared, but you kept your wits about you."

I suddenly had a lump in my throat that made me start to burn with embarrassment.

 _I will not cry in front of my dad._

"You're going to tell Mum I called Craglin a 'showboating asshole', aren't you," I joked weakly, trying to diffuse the tension.

His smile didn't quite reach his eyes, but I think he knew I was uncomfortable. He backed off the overly-emotional display and sighed. He shook his head, still smiling a little. "No, I won't tell your Mum that. I'm not sure I'll detail much of anything that you showed us, actually. I think it would… it might cause her a great deal of anxiety to know what all you went through."

I heard what he was really saying: _I couldn't stand to see someone do that to you and I don't want to burden someone else who loves you just as much as I do with that knowledge._

"Do you wish you hadn't seen it?" I asked nervously, part of me regretting the question as soon as it was out of my mouth, but another part of me had to know.

He had tears in his eyes but he said firmly, "No."

I let out the breath I didn't realize I was holding and nodded heavily, relieved.

"No, I'm not sorry I saw it. As much as it hurt to watch, it showed me how calm under pressure and brave you truly are. You handled a terrifying situation with incredible resolve, Albus."

Draco and Scorpius walked up just then, both looking at us warily. It occurred to me just then that of the four of us, only Draco had no knowledge – first- or second-hand – of what had happened with Craglin. He seemed disturbed by Dad's obvious tension and emotion. He must have known that it meant Scorpius suffered, too. I wanted to spare Draco everything Dad was dealing with having just seen it.

"Right, back to school for you two," Dad said, taking a deep breath and putting his Harry Potter mask back on. "Professor McGonagall agreed to excuse you both from classes for the rest of the day so you might as well enjoy the time off. Relax, don't work on homework if you don't absolutely have to. Just…" he paused, taking a breath.

 _Be together_ was what I wanted to hear him say.

"Just take it easy this afternoon," he finished.

Scorpius and I nodded silently. We both got one last hug from our dads and then headed off toward the grates, each of us taking a scoop of Floo powder from the buckets hung between the fireplaces. Scorpius was the first to toss his handful in.

As he disappeared, whisked off to "The Hogwarts' Headmistress' office", I heard Draco ask tensly, "What did you see in that memory, Harry?"

I stepped into the green flames and turned to see that they were both watching me closely. Dad answered grimly, "You don't want to know, Draco."

And then I vanished.


	7. Chapter 7

**CHAPTER 7**

Scorpius and I hadn't said much to each other after we'd gotten back from the hearing, although he did sneak a long, enthusiastic kiss as thanks for getting him out of testifying once we'd left McGonagall's office. We ended up back in the dormitory for most of the day while classes went on without us, but I was too keyed up to get much work done. Scorpius went back to sleep for a short period before getting up to continue his homework, and he even attended last period double Potions, although I took full advantage of our excused absence for the day.

A couple days later, I received an owl from home at breakfast, getting another round of "we love you and we're so proud of you" and "please let us know if you feel any changes from the attack", as well as a short note that several of the Wizengamot had already viewed the memory and were close to setting a date for Craglin's formal sentencing. Dad wrote separately that he hadn't told Mum any of the major details as he'd promised, and I breathed a sigh of relief that at least she would be spared that burden.

Mostly I wanted to put everything behind me. In a roundabout bit of luck, I was able to forget all about the trial as our classes had picked up immeasurably in the following couple weeks, with homework increasing to the point that even with free periods to use for studying, Scorpius and I had almost no time to ourselves. And as such, we'd had no time for anything beyond a few brief snogs here and there, usually as he was getting in from his Prefect rounds, or hidden in alcoves while the rest of the school was watching Quidditch matches.

So despite our mutual interest in putting our new anatomical addition through its paces, the knot was put on the backburner. However, I had noticed during another shower wank that I could, in fact, prevent the knot from forming at all, with enough desperate concentration. Probably for the best; I could still get my rocks off without turning into a lifeless puddle of bliss for an hour and risking being caught by other students.

I told Scorpius as much and he'd nodded heavily. "Yeah, I've noticed the same. It's good to know but it's tough to keep the knot under control and still enjoy the wank, you know? I just miss when we could take our time. Even before all this knotting business."

He pulled me in for a kiss that made me forget where I was for a moment. He pulled away just enough to whisper against my lips, "I'll figure something out. Try to stay ahead of your homework in case an opportunity presents itself."

And then he was gone, heading down the corridor like nothing had just happened between us and nodding kindly to a small group of first-years who'd just rounded the corner.

Homework, right. Get a jump on my homework, then sexy fun times with Scorpius. That was the goal.

I had spent all afternoon and evening catching up on my homework, getting ahead on some of my reading for Defense and Herbology. I hadn't seen Scorpius since our stolen kiss and he didn't even show up for dinner, which I'd found odd. After I'd had my fill in the Great Hall I checked the Library, but he wasn't there either. It wasn't until I was turning in for bed, having already surpassed the week's reading in Charms and Care of Magical Creatures, that Scorpius burst into the dormitory in a flurry of robes and flushed cheeks. Had we been alone, I'm sure he'd have swept me up in a kiss, but fortunately he noticed that two of our three other roommates were there as well, also preparing for bed.

Scorpius and I found ourselves in this particular situation more often than we were out of it. We had become expert at cramming down our excitement at seeing each other. _Just be bros. Involve the others in the room in the conversation, make it look casual, totally platonic…_

"I've done it!" Scorpius announced dramatically to the room at large. Our roommates looked up, mildly interested. They'd always known Scorpius to be over-the-top in his excitement about school.

"Done what, mate?" I asked.

"I made a Patronus!" He lit up, and although he was looking at me, the other boys in the room looked over at him, impressed.

"Damn, Malfoy, that's brilliant," said Eddie, a tall, slim boy who played Keeper on the Slytherin Quidditch team. "What shape did it take?"

Scorpius looked over at him and I'm glad he didn't have to be obvious about focusing on me. "Well, I didn't make a complete animal form yet," he explained, "but I was able to make a really solid cloud for almost half a minute. The cloud did have four feet, though!"

"Feet?" I laughed. "You think Dementors are going to flee from your cloud with feet?"

"Ah, fuck off, Potter," said Wyatt, though there wasn't any real force behind it. "What's your Patronus look like then, eh?"

"Albus can't make one yet," Scorpius said with a half-hearted smirk; not quite a patented Malfoy Sneer.

"Whatever, as long as it doesn't become a damn _stag_ when I do figure out how to make one," I scoffed.

It was a pointless, fluffy chat, and that's how Scorpius and I stayed under the radar with our relationship. It was all a lie anyway, since Scorpius and I had been able to produce full-bodied Patronus charms since last year. (Mine was a huge, draught-breed horse; Scorpius' was a lion.)

"I'll show you tomorrow, Albus, and then maybe you won't be such a dick about my ' _cloud with feet'_." He snarked.

Wyatt and Eddie chuckled a bit, but after they'd looked away and continued going about their nightly routines, I chanced a longer look at Scorpius. He had a look in his eye that I recognized immediately. A barely-contained glee that meant he'd either found something, or had come up with an idea. The prospect excited me, too.

That was last night. Thank Merlin today was not just Saturday, but Quidditch Saturday.

Despite the match being Ravenclaw versus Hufflepuff, our Common Room cleared out almost completely after breakfast. Slytherin had a very real interest in the point spread, especially with Hufflepuff looking uncommonly hot this year. The guys in our dorm had spent all morning loudly debating strategy and how many points they'd need to win the Quidditch Cup with either a Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff win today.

"You ready to see my mad Patronus skills?" Scorpius asked, as a few stragglers passed us on the way out of the dungeons. We were finally alone in the corridor now.

"'Patronus skills'," I mocked. "So what did you _actually_ find?"

He grinned broadly, the same delight I'd seen on his face last night coming back again. "I'm not sure how we can necessarily lighten our course loads enough to have more time to ourselves, but I do know of _where_ we can be together in private if and when we do find the time," he said, beaming triumphantly. "The Room of Requirement. I finally found it!"

I knew the reference. I'd heard it mentioned in stories from my parents and aunts and uncles about how they'd met in secret to build a resistance within Hogwarts when they were students, but I'd never found out where it was and honestly, until now, I hadn't really seen the point in seeking it out.

However, my sudden intrigue was extinguished as I remembered something.

"Hang on, I thought it was destroyed by Fiendfyre," I said. "Your dad's friend set it during the Battle of Hogwarts."

"Yeah, Crabbe burned the place up, I guess," Scorpius said, though he was still flushed with excitement. "But it must have been rebuilt, because it's still there and it still works! At least to some extent. Maybe I don't know exactly how to ask it for certain things, because some stuff it couldn't do, but it can provide simple requests, at least. Like, say, a large bed and warding against visitors." He grinned, rambling happily.

I laughed. "We're going to turn an elusive room, built from some of the most complicated magic known to magicalkind, into our own personal love nest?"

"Why not?"

 _How could he manage to look so sweet and innocent about this?_

After climbing several flights of stairs and winding down multiple corridors to a part of the school I rarely visited, Scorpius stopped me and instructed me to stand off to the side. Then he began to pace back and forth in front of a long stretch of blank-walled corridor. I suppose it should have been conspicuous in its emptiness; very few walls in Hogwarts weren't covered in portraits or tapestries.

And then a door suddenly grew from the empty wall, although it didn't look exactly the same as all the other doors in the school. This one was terribly age, the paint faded, the wood dry and splintering around the handle, with gouges and streaks of ash marring its surface. Despite its dilapidated appearance, Scorpius squeaked when he saw it and we both made a beeline straight through it.

I didn't fully understand the magic behind this room, but I was grateful for its versatility, even in its current damaged state. The interior was a comfortable size, neither sprawling like a classroom nor cramped like a typical bedroom. It was larger than our dormitory room but with only one four-poster – thankfully much larger than our narrow single beds – strung with rich black velvet hangings, and a small side table next to it. There was an ash-strewn fireplace with a plush dark green couch facing it on the other side of the room, and another door across the room from us, open to reveal an attached bathroom. Despite the fireplace not being lit, the room was a comfortable temperature and not too bright.

Simple, cozy, private.

"You're a genius, you know that?" I said, elated and enthralled.

"I guess I could have forgone the fireplace," he mused quietly from a few steps behind me. "I asked for one earlier, but it wasn't lit then either, and I couldn't start even just a small fire on my own. Although I suppose that makes sense, you know? I wonder if the room remembers…"

I was mesmerized by the incredible gift of this room when I felt his lips on my neck. I reached back to stroke my fingers through his hair and felt his hands slide over my hips and begin tugging at my belt. I spun around, and we were connected at the lips instantly.

Despite our general desire to be able to take our time, we had been without each other too long. We had time and energy for more than one round, however, so neither of us slowed our pace.

We were naked and pressing against each other in no time at all. We'd somehow managed to find our way blindly to the bed, where I sat precariously on the edge. Scorpius swung his left leg over my right hip, and placed his right leg between my legs, pulling my knee up around his slim waist. The position enabled us to grind deliciously and we were both shaking and groaning quickly.

Scorpius released his hold on my knee to better line up our lengths and began to stroke them together. I had to pull away from his mouth to regain my breath. When it did return, it was punched back out of my lungs in a jagged swear.

I could feel the knot growing and, looking down, I saw that mine was already slightly larger than Scorpius'. His hand slowed and his rocking became shallower, barely letting me press myself against him.

"Calm down, Albus," he whispered, dragging his tongue along my ear. "Don't knot. Keep it under control. I know you can feel that pressure, I can too, but don't give into it."

My whine was utterly pathetic, worse than a child who'd just been handed a candy bar and told not to eat it. Scorpius chuckled a low, sexy huff against my hairline and it tickled. I shivered and slid my hands over him, trying to pull him closer again.

"Oh, we're definitely going to knot," he assured me, reading my desperation and sighing as I dragged my fingertips up and down his back. I slid one hand up over his shoulders into his hair, massaging his scalp. My other settled over one of his ass cheeks and he moaned low when I gave him a firm squeeze.

"We're going to knot a little later," he said breathily, "but for now… an exercise in self-control. Sort of."

He pushed me down onto the bed and I crawled backwards that so we were both fully on it.

"A _brief_ exercise, I hope," I said, not caring that I sounded more than a little frantic. I was spread eagle below him, and he spread his own legs obscenely wide as well, still managing to pin his thighs wide enough to seat himself against my pelvis, our balls crushed together and erections dragging against each other with each dirty roll of his hips.

"Just…concentrate," he instructed. "Pull back from the knot. It has its own…" his eyes screwed shut and he lost his train of thought but somehow I knew what he was saying.

"It feels like it has its own bloodflow or something," I finished for him, stroking one hand up over his taut, shivering abs and using the other to grip his hip, guiding him against me.

"Exactly," he hissed out, adjusting to sit forward on top of me, hands clutching at my shoulders, letting my cock bob against the back of his thigh. With some wiggling where he ground his own leaking cock against my abs – we both gasped – he settled as my own cock slipped between his ass cheeks, and I could feel him flexing, altering his grind to accommodate the new position.

I tried my damnedest, although I felt it was a lot of ask of a teenage boy in the middle of a mouthwatering rut to tamp down his arousal. But I could feel Scorpius managing it so gritting my teeth, I did it too. I focused the heat in my belly away from the ring that I could feel tightening, but refused to let it rise further.

We were kissing as we came, within seconds of each other. Scorpius came first, gasping his climax against my mouth and he pulled away briefly to avoid biting my tongue. I felt his come smear between our bellies.

He was back to devouring my mouth as he cleared the first wave, and I hit my peak too, grunting into his mouth and shoving my dick as fast as I could along the seam of his ass. He reached behind himself, rubbing at my cock as I came along his lower back. We slowed and finally settled in a heap of sweaty, sticky limbs.

Scorpius rolled off my lap and flopped on his back next to me, and I barely noticed that we'd linked our fingers as our skin continued to cool and we caught our breath.

We spent several hazy minutes just touching. First running our fingers along each other hands, traveling over palms, then stroking over wrists, tickling over the hair on forearms. We both rolled to our sides, facing each other to continue our sensual exploration over quivering abs, sensitive inner thighs.

Scorpius eventually pulled away to lean over the side of the bed to wrestle his wand out of the pocket of his robes. He Cast a Cleaning Charm over us and made a particularly theatrical show of swiping his wand over his low back, quirking an eyebrow at me.

"Well, that's one hell of a start to a Saturday morning," I said, stretching.

"Informative, too!" Scorpius said, his eyes bright, his nerdy glee chasing away the erotic blaze from minutes ago. "So now we know that we can both control the knot, and I might point out, unlike my solo experiments, that was much more fun. On my own it was… tedious… trying to focus on not knotting. But with you, I could still enjoy what we were doing, without losing control."

"Ditto," I said, rolling my eyes and smiling lazily. Leave it to Scorpius to follow up sex with analysis.

He resettled himself against me and we fell back into our easy habit of snogging and gentle stroking. I eventually got Scorpius rolled over onto his belly and he rested his head on his hands, sighing as I started massaging his shoulders after crawling up his body and straddling his waist. I loved touching his body and he was always willing to let me, but it had been so long since we'd had enough time alone to do this. We were normally watching the clock too much to enjoy anything fully, with Scorpius constantly second-guessing if his warding charms would hold if we were suddenly interrupted. But there was nothing to worry about here and I was infinitely grateful.

He shifted a bit under me, and eventually slid a hand under his belly to readjust himself before resettling into the bed, chin on his hands again. I was growing hard again too and I figured now was as good a time as any to work up to a knot with him.

I crawled off him and as I did so, he mumbled, "Check the drawer."

I paused for a moment, then slid across the bed to pull open the drawer on the side table and sure enough, there was indeed a vial of lube.

I smirked. "You cheeky bastard, you told the room to supply lube?"

He grinned and wiggled his ass. He scrabbled for his wand again, muttering a quick spell we'd figured out for a dry enema months ago in a book snuck from the Restricted Section after hours. He hissed as the spell took effect and I knew the feeling – suddenly chilly and empty. He tossed his wand away carelessly.

I reseated myself behind him, nudging his legs apart. I opened the lube bottle and trickled a few drops into his crack, watching it run down the back of his balls. The chill and sudden wetness had him squirming against the bed for a few moments. Scorpius loved a good, sensual tease. He sighed and spread his legs a bit wider.

I allowed the bottle to warm a bit more in my hand before slathering up a finger and tracing his fluttering hole. He began to press back against me and allowed me to slide in my first finger halfway. He froze, clamping down for just a moment before I felt him forcing himself to relax and push back against me again. We slowly worked up to two of my fingers fully inside of him, rocking and gently scissoring. He was breathing more heavily now, beads of sweat trickling down the back of his neck.

" _Albus_."

His voice was uncharacteristically low and even.

I hadn't stopped thrusting my fingers, still slow enough to avoid a too-soon ending but it kept him comfortable and rolling his hips slightly against the mattress.

"Yeah, Scorpius, I got you," I whispered to him.

"I want you," he begged, sounding slightly desperate. "Not just your fingers. Please, I'm ready."

That made me slow my motion to a crawl. He looked over his shoulder at the change of pace and I could see it in his eyes. He was completely serious.

"But… the knot. Scorpius, we can't – I can't, it'll hurt you –" I scrambled, but he cut me off.

"Just don't push in past the knot. Let it build, I will too, and we'll bust our knots together. But I want you. _Please_ , Albus." His begging was so small, but the look in his eyes was earnest.

He almost looked afraid that I'd reject him.

 _Like I could ever do that, Scorpius. I'll never deny you._

I gingerly removed my fingers and moved up to lean over him as he pushed himself up on one arm. It was awkward with him still mostly on his belly and looking over his shoulder, but it was one of the heaviest kisses we had ever shared. The slow, sincere drag of his tongue over mine floored me.

"Please," he whispered again, against my lips.

I released an unsteady breath. "Stop me if it's too much." I said quietly, begging him to make me stop just as much as he was begging me to give it to him. I pulled back and resettled myself again between his spread legs.

I ran my hands up his thighs, over his ass, rubbing, squeezing, then massaging down again. When he began to follow my movements with tiny twitches of his hips, I reached for the bottle of lube again, rewetting my fingers and pressing in slowly. He groaned impatiently.

"No more fingers," he grunted. He lifted his ass, then pulled his knees beneath himself, presenting himself to me; I automatically took hold of his hips, running my thumbs over his soft skin. I leaned down, dragging my tongue down his crack, and he hissed. " _C'mon_ , Albus."

I'm not particularly into rimming – giving or receiving – but the specific type of shudders that wrack his taut body when I flick my tongue inside his tight ring are like nothing else. He shook and whimpered as I gave him a few more licks.

Then I released my hold on him with a little nip and a kiss to his firm ass. I couldn't resist fondling his balls, rolling them and stroking my thumb up and down his perineum. It made his hips slide in a slow, dirty roll and he moaned again, low and breathy this time. He eased back down to the bed and I watched as he spoiled himself just a little by humping slightly into the sheets. I was mesmerized by the motion: the sensual, rhythmic roll, his back and thighs flexing beautifully.

My heart kicked fast and heavy against my ribcage and I realized that it wasn't just from arousal but anxiety as well. I wanted this – so badly – but could I control it? Could I resist sliding my knot into him, as obviously welcoming as his body was?

But Scorpius was completely trusting and spread out in front of me, sighing gently as he rolled his hips against the mattress again. I coated my cock in lube, noting that my knot was building but wasn't huge.

"Alright, Scorpius," I sighed, lining myself up, brushing my cock against his ass, sliding it gently along his seam, teasing his entrance.

He surprised me by sliding backwards unexpectedly, impaling himself on the head of my cock and groaning happily. I was startled by the movement and utterly unprepared for the feeling. The pressure, the heat, the throbbing pull of his body, all of it. The intensity sent me reeling and I could hardly register the sound I made.

He pushed himself up to his elbows, forearms flat on the bed and hands clutching fistfuls of the sheets. He rocked back, and I followed him a heartbeat later, pushing in bit by bit, even selfishly daring to edge into him past my still-small knot.

We both stilled and moaned when I was fully sheathed, knot and all. But I felt it rapidly growing, pulsing just a bit larger with each of my heartbeats, and I was sure Scorpius could feel it, too. He might have liked it now – _hell,_ I _liked it now_ – but I knew I couldn't let it swell to full size. I couldn't come inside him. Not like this.

We settled into a steady rhythm anyway, a shimmer of worry wheedling at my brain. Scorpius was reveling in it, though, his moans alternating between swears and unintelligible grunts. He was sighing and humming in the most blissed out way that I had trouble paying attention to much else. I was conflicted; I didn't want to let the knot get unmanageable or painfully large, but I also wanted to keep doing the things that was ripping those moans from his slack mouth.

My anxiety didn't like that my carnal instinct had won that round. I was holding his hips more firmly now, picking up my pace. I was trying to discover what I loved more – the even, gentle pelvic rolls (Scorpius gasped at the constant drag of friction); the quick, sharp, shallow thrusts (Scorpius arched and yelped as my balls slapped against his); or the admittedly wolfish mounting. Scorpius seemed to like this best based on his sounds. He huffed a slightly crazed laugh as I released my hold on his hips and lowered myself to wrap my arms around his torso, chest pressed firmly to his back, and pulled him down onto my cock as I thrust up.

"The wolf makes another appearance," he whispered, delighted as my thighs encased his, and the readjusted angle had me sliding over his prostate on nearly every drive.

 _I can't believe how fucking good this feels._

" _More_ , Albus, _faster_ ," he panted.

He shifted his weight entirely to his left arm, dropping his right hand beneath himself, pumping in time with my thrusts.

I could feel the knot growing fast, _too_ fast. It was pulling against his hole on every stroke, and while the sensation had Scorpius groaning happily, my lingering anxiety slipped in and momentarily smothered my animal instinct. It made me move my hand automatically down between us, slotting my cock between my fingers, giving myself a physical barrier to the temptation to continue pushing the knot inside him.

Scorpius whined at the loss of the knot's firm drag, and it cost both of us the satisfaction of balls-deep thrusts. His left arm shook with the effort to keep himself up, his right arm still stripping away at his cock. His own knot must have been nearly full size.

"Fuck, f-fuck – Albus, _so good,_ please," he sobbed between grunts. We were both so close.

I pulled out entirely and we were both practically mindless with the want of each other. I sat back and pushed at his hip and he obeyed immediately, shakily flipping onto his back.

I was right, his knot was full size and mine nearly was, too. He scrambled to sit up on his knees, settling back on his heels, mirroring me. We encircled each other with our left arms, right hands still pulling desperately. We were kissing breathlessly, both right on the edge.

" _Look at me_ ," Scorpius hissed, and we pulled away from each other's lips.

The look in his eye was what did it. We were both suddenly shuddering over our orgasms together, practically crying. We did everything we could to maintain eye contact, the vulnerability unlike anything we'd ever had before. My head was swimming. I could barely process the endless shaking of my body, making my thrusts uneven and my hand slipping irrhythmically now that I was smeared with our mutual cum.

We lost our balance, tipping to our sides and losing ourselves in the waves. I vaguely fantasized that he was jerking me off but I couldn't be sure. I didn't remember closing my eyes, but I opened them again to see that – oh yes, indeed, that _is_ his hand on my cock, and mine on his. The sounds we were making were foreign to my ears, almost distressing in their desperation, and we clung to each other as we sunk under the blissful waves again.

We kissed and licked and bit and shivered and stroked ceaselessly. We somehow shifted, me on my back with my legs wrapping around Scorpius, and we were still wanking, but the added wet glide of grinding had us panting our moans into each other mouths.

My eyes rolled back into my head, which was a damn shame because I wished I could watch Scorpius shake and shudder. It felt endless, like the first time on my own in the shower, but the addition of this amazing, beautiful, incredible boy with me – my best mate, maybe more than my best mate – made the sensation almost unbearable. I felt myself suddenly crying, overwhelmed by the intimacy and everything we were feeling. I managed to open my eyes when I heard a similar sobbing coming from Scorpius, but my tears obscured my vision.

The repeated mind-blowing cycle of orgasms began to wane after another minute, mercifully, and we spent the next few minutes riding out the waves, trying to alternate between kissing and catching our breath, slowly bit by bit. We finally released our hold on each other's cocks but continued a gentle press against one another, our knots still hard and throbbing, despite their oversensitivity.

We were cradling each other's tear-streaked faces, stroking through hair, dragging fingertips over necks and shoulders. We'd never kissed like this and if I adored a good snog before, this was astonishing. Completely next-level. I couldn't imagine a better feeling than this right here; the most perfect kisses, wrapped around Scorpius' warm body, jutting knots and cocks trapped between us, both of us still weeping cum.

My tears ebbed, and I felt myself get light-headed and I had to pull away, panting, cheeks still wet. Scorpius latched onto my neck, sucking a bruise I was going to have to ask him to heal later since I'd always been rubbish at first-aid spells. I sunk my hand into his hair, sweaty rather than silky now, and gave him a firm pull and he moaned again, grinding his knot harder into my thigh.

"God, Scorpius, that… _fuck_ , that was –"

He hummed and moaned his agreement, still kissing up my neck and jawline.

My vision swam again, dark spots taking over my periphery. I remembered Scorpius passing out soon after the first time he knotted, and I imagined that I was about to do the same. I pulled him up to look into his stormy gray eyes for a moment before nodding off completely, still hard and coming, wrapped up in Scorpius' arms.

When I awoke, Scorpius was still out cold, pressed firmly against my side. We couldn't have been out too long, our knots were still swollen but we were no longer dribbling cum. Despite feeling fairly boneless, I woozily stretched to retrieve Scorpius' wand from where it was haphazardly tossed near the head of the bed. I managed to cast a decent Cleaning Charm over the two of us on my second try.

The feeling of a lake's worth of semen being magically siphoned from his skin roused Scorpius a bit and he slowly tried to stretch, but adorably flopped on his back instead, sighing contentedly. We watched each other for a moment, just happy to be together, sharing this incredible, secret experience.

Scorpius was still quite wobbly as he pulled himself up the bed, dragging down the covers.

"C'mon," he said over his shoulder. "For all our messing around, we've never just slept together, have we?"

"Never been able to," I said, pulling myself drunkenly off the bed to pull the sheets down before cuddling in close, pressed against his back. "But I've always wanted to. It's about time."

He sighed blissfully as I slung an arm around his waist and pressed a kiss to the back of his shoulder. "Rest," he said. "We might make it to lunch with the rest of the school after the match finishes up."

"Maybe," I said, nearly out again already. "Or we could just stay here. We're caught up on homework and we could probably summon a House Elf to bring us food."

"Oh, I do like the way you think, Albus Potter," he slurred sleepily and for the first time, we nodded off snuggled together.


	8. Chapter 8

**CHAPTER 8**

Life seemed like it couldn't have gotten better for me as it did after our first time knotting together. I'd never been so inspired to get my homework finished early than I did after the promise of more private time together. The change in my studiousness was noted by several teachers and word eventually traveled to my parents that I was staying ahead of my lessons and performing well, for which they expressed a pride I would have killed for a few years ago. If only they understood my true motivation.

Since the discovery of the Room of Requirement, it seemed we did little else but go to class, finish our work, and then throw ourselves against each other in the secret bedroom. We ended up spending so much time together that we became concerned others were beginning to suspect our relationship was more than friendly. One time over a weekend, we'd even spent the night in our sanctuary and struggled to come up with believable excuses when our roommates asked the next day.

Somehow, we'd convinced them that we'd each been with girls – separately, of course – but didn't want to give details; protecting the girls' privacy and modesty and all that. Luckily, they bought it and celebrated our supposed trysts with punches to the shoulder and lewd congratulations.

We tried to keep it low-key after that, being more careful not to be seen leaving and entering the dormitory together. We kept our hands off each other as much as possible when around others, although it was a desperate struggle to do so. The routine seemed to work for the most part. We rarely got second glances anymore, but we were still getting our blissful alone time, and our coursework was getting top marks to boot.

The icing on the cake came in mid-March when we finally received news about Craglin's trial. Word first came via owl from home in the evening post, then in the Daily Prophet the next morning. Despite his age, Craglin had been found guilty on all charges which included coercion, improper use of magic, unregulated use of experimental Transfiguration, unlawful study and use of Dark magic, and several counts of assault on underage witches and wizards. He was sentenced to twenty-five years in Azkaban with no hope of ever owning a wand again upon his release. Even with Azkaban having been rebuilt and reformed to be staffed by Aurors and not Dementors – a fairer, more humane arrangement – I was still glad he'd be under the tightest security the Ministry had to offer.

The Prophet credited my own Pensieve testimony as being the single most important piece of evidence in the case, though fortunately it didn't detail anything from the memory itself. The rest of the wizarding world was finally seeing Albus Severus Potter living up the Potter name, just as brave as his father before him, fighting injustice and doing his part to protect underage students who couldn't protect themselves.

I thought that was overkill but Dad told me to appreciate good press where I could get it.

The verdict had also rekindled the school's interest in the case and as a result, the interest in Scorpius and myself revived as well. Hodges and Leary had regained their small following again, though they'd toned down their storytelling to their peers after the Prophet revealed that their only part in the major event of our Transfiguration was skipping class and subsequently needing to be saved.

It meant that Scorpius and I were attracting more attention than usual. We weren't just weird nobodies anymore; the statuses of the disappointing Slytherin Potter and Voldemort's Son seemed to fade with the case and suddenly the sideways glances we were receiving now from girls – and a few boys, much to my chagrin and Scorpius' amusement – were no longer pitying or disgusted, but flirtatious.

But where interest seemed to wane from most girls (and a couple gutsy boys) when Scorpius or I let them down easy, Macie Barteau had been the most consistently forward. She was nice and always had been. She was in our year and had never joined in the teasing or bullying either of us dealt with in our first few years at Hogwarts.

Eventually the novelty of the verdict died down and after a couple weeks, Scorpius and I were back to being old news as well. However, Macie had stuck around and seemed genuinely interested in me. Prefect duties had been keeping Scorpius busy lately, what with the extra load of patrols and tutoring sessions he and the other sixth-year Prefects had to shoulder to pick up Craglin's slack. My time with Scorpius became rare and precious again, but Macie was good company and an excellent study partner.

Last night, after we'd finished our work on an essay for Arithmancy, she'd given me a kiss on the cheek and an alluring smile before gathering her book bag and leaving the Library. Scorpius hadn't gotten into the dormitory from his patrol until after I was already asleep, but I felt the need to mention it to him this morning at breakfast.

"Well," he said, looking like he was choosing his words carefully, "We agreed that we wouldn't stand in each other's way if a girl happened to come along that either of us was interested in."

His face was a perfect mask of indifference. It disturbed me.

" _So_ ," I drawled, wanting to elicit some sort of reaction, "You'd be cool with it if we spent more time together, outside of just studying? Like maybe if we went to Hogsmeade together next weekend? Or sat together for a Quidditch match? Maybe take turns having lunch at each other's House tables every now and then?"

With each hypothetical I gave, his mask fractured bit by bit.

He looked away and stuttered a bit, "Uh, ye – _yeah,_ totally, mate. Go for it, if that's what you want."

"What if she wanted to hook up with me?" Straight to the point. He actually flinched, and it hurt to watch.

He looked up. "Are – are you really… _that_ into her?" He looked so sad. I almost backed off completely right then and there.

I compromised and toned it down. "Well, I mean – not really, but…" I lowered my voice and leaned forward. "Aren't you a little curious? Don't you want to know what it's like? Being with a girl?" I finished on a whisper.

He avoided meeting my gaze and didn't answer.

"Mate, I really enjoy what we do, don't get me wrong," I continued quickly, and I wasn't lying. "But you and I have never been with anyone but each other. And we're both still attracted to girls, right?"

He nodded, still not looking at me. He pushed his plate away and stood up suddenly, gathering his books for first period. I quickly did the same and followed him out of the Great Hall.

"Look, I'm sorry," I said quickly, and I truly did feel bad about upsetting him.

When he didn't stop walking, I took hold of his arm and pulled him into an empty classroom. He finally looked up at me when I closed the door. I kissed him. I kissed him hard and long, trying to convey every ounce of what I felt for him.

"What we have," I started, struggling to find the words, still holding his face and stroking my thumbs over his jawline. "It's mind-blowing, Scorpius. And I don't want to lose it. I was just… curious, is all. And hey, I don't even know that Macie would be interested in going that far anyway, I was just… putting the cart before the horse, I guess. It's stupid, really, for me to get so ahead of myself like this. I'm sorry, Scorpius."

He looked at me a moment longer before sighing and wrapping me up in a hug. I couldn't hide my relief, gripping him in return and pressing my face into his shoulder.

"No, Albus, it's fine. Just surprised me is all," he said, breath tickling my ear. "And we did already agree to not pass up offers from others…" he trailed off.

"But?"

"That was before we got the knot."

 _Right._

"We could hurt someone, Albus. And we've been so careful to make sure no one learned about it, especially during the trial."

He was correct, as usual. Scorpius and I had been on eggshells after Craglin demanded to know if his spell actually had the lasting effect he'd intended. That question, which had unfortunately been published in the Daily Prophet as part of an interview with investigators, meant that the school had been suddenly interested, too. Scorpius and I shot them down repeatedly, but the questions persisted. Fed up one evening, I'd snapped and surprised some students by yelling and inviting them to frisk me right there in the Great Hall – _"Go on, cop a feel, look for any change you like, you bloody gits!" –_ as I'd been leaving dinner. No one called my bluff and the questions finally stopped after that.

During the week that Dad had been leading the investigation and meeting with students and families here at the school, he'd pulled me aside after one of his interviews and asked yet again if we'd noticed anything different.

I'd told him no. I'd lied.

I'd felt simultaneously bad about lying to him after committing to being honest with him, while also satisfied that I'd successfully done what I'd needed to do to protect myself and Scorpius in the long-run. We didn't need the undue attention from Healers or to be outed publicly in the press.

But Dad had accepted my answer without question, nodding and looking reassured. He'd said that he'd let Craglin's Defense know officially that his spell had failed in its intent and didn't indicate if the Wizengamot would require testimony confirming anything one way or another on that point. Shortly thereafter, the Daily Prophet reported that the Permanency Charm aspect had failed, the statement thanks in large part to Madam Fairmont, who claimed in testimony to the Wizengamot that she had not seen anything out of the ordinary in her examinations of us.

And luckily, my offer of the Pensieve memory seemed to have been regarded as more than generous and I hadn't been troubled to provide anything further. That took the attention off the Permanency Charm Craglin kept swearing he got right, although no one seemed to care anymore.

But Scorpius was still right. Could we trust anyone else with that secret?

"If you want me to avoid her, just say the word," I said quietly, and I sincerely meant it.

He thought hard for a moment, then sighed and smirked. "Naw, mate. Go for it if you want to. Just be careful. The knot isn't terribly obvious if you keep a lid on it. Maybe just don't let her go down on you and she might not notice."

This was the most relaxed he'd looked since I brought up the topic at breakfast and I was relieved.

"But this means I might say yes to Katie Wesley," he bragged gently, picking up his bag and leading the way out of the classroom.

 _Wait, what?_

"Katie…the Hufflepuff Prefect?" I was surprised, and felt an alarming stab of jealousy.

"Yeah, she's been volunteering to work patrols with me in the last couple weeks," he said. "Really sweet, and she's been so supportive through the whole Craglin thing, taking on tutoring his students."

"No kidding," I said dully, and realized that I didn't quite like the feel of the shoe being on the other foot.

I spent the rest of the day in a bit of a haze. I met up with Macie briefly after dinner when she asked to come to the Slytherin Common Room to study tomorrow while the rest of the school watched Quidditch. Scorpius had a tutoring session in the morning, so I agreed, because really, what was the harm in extra studying?

And so that's how I came to be here, in my empty dormitory with Macie Barteau's fingers frantically scrabbling at my chest, tugging the zipper down and shoving my jacket down over my arms. I released my hold on her just long enough to shrug it off entirely without either of us breaking our kiss.

I didn't really know how this happened. Macie isn't a Slytherin, she's a Ravenclaw, so you'd think she'd know better; you'd think she'd have enough sense to not go for the Slytherin Potter. Her reputation would be ruined. I truly thought she'd wanted to study.

 _Albus, you naïve moron._

But she was smart and pretty, and we were nearly alone in this castle and apparently simultaneously horny, and I guess those were good enough reasons for us to be solidly attached at the mouth just then.

She was a good kisser, I'd give her that.

And then I was getting pushed onto my own bed with Macie pinning me down, her knees framing my hips. We separated for a few moments in a futile effort to catch our breath, her hands still fumbling with my belt. I tugged off my shirt and tossed it away.

She made short work of her own clothes, getting them off faster without my help. She made a show of pulling off my trousers, simultaneously tugging my underwear down with them.

She climbed back on top of me and curled up my chest, kissing me deeply again. She was so soft; softer and smaller that Scorpius, and lighter in weight than I was used to having on me, and I was almost a bit disappointed; I missed the firm weight of him. I was used to stony abs and a broad, flat chest. The torso writhing against me just then was all supple and round.

She wriggled a bit and slid down so that the tip of my cock was brushing against the apex of her thighs. (No balls to drag my cock against, that's new.) Her movement broke our kiss, another difference. I was used to being able to kiss Scorpius while still grinding our hips; being nearly the same height, we didn't have to give up one for the other.

She sat up, adjusting herself so that she was sitting back on my thighs, my cock jutting up in front of her. She scooted a bit and took hold of me, wanking me with a rhythm and pressure that wasn't bad, per se, but it was obvious she doesn't have a ton of experience handling a dick, at least not the way I liked.

Okay, so I couldn't really fault the girl for that; I'd obviously had more practice.

She rocked her hips forward while pulling my cock toward her mound. She sighed as she pressed me against her clit and rocked up and down, just dragging herself over my length over and over. It seemed to do quite a bit for her, though not a lot for me.

I reached down beneath her on one of her slow upstrokes and trailed my fingertips along her wet slit.

She startled and opens her eyes, looking down at me.

I used her moment of surprise to sink my middle finger fully within her folds and we both gasped.

 _This_ is what I'd been waiting for. Not odd rutting, no cock mishandling. Just hot, slick muscle.

She released her inexpert hold – _Thank Merlin_ – and instead leaned back, rocking her hips forward, before resuming her up-and-down rocking, whining on each downstroke over my finger. She was clenching in such a way that felt similar to how Scorpius felt when he was tightening on me, though he'd never been this wet even with all the lube we'd use.

I pulled my finger gently out of her, getting impatient. She leaned forward to kiss me again and I took the opportunity of her clutching me to sit up and scoop her into my arms to reverse our positions.

As soon as her back hit my bed, she flung her arms over her head and I sunk my finger back into her once more. She pulled her knees up and rolled her hips in time with my thrusting. I tried to match her rhythm, letting my thumb circle her clit. I continued it for a few more seconds before pulling out and sucking my finger into my mouth. _Not half bad._ She smiled at the sight, then reached down to use one hand to part her dripping outer lips, presenting her pussy to me.

"C'mon, Albus," she whispered, her smirk equal parts plea and dare.

I positioned myself at her entrance, which she was still framing with her fingers, but when she reached for me, I quickly slid my hand back to my base to cover the knot, although it was barely raised and no darker than the rest of my flushed cock. I honestly hadn't had to work too hard to keep it at bay so far, what with the slightly awkward start.

I slowly slid home, letting her adjust little by little, and _this_ …

 _Yes, this_ was good. This was _really fucking good._

When her hips were flush against mine, I looked down at her and managed to croak, "You okay?"

She nodded almost spastically, gasping. It was all I needed before I set a quick pace and she wrapped her legs around me to hold on.

It was different from being with Scorpius. This was so wet, and admittedly, I did enjoy the slide. But her hips felt so fragile, her stomach so smooth, and I realized that I missed the thin trail of hair down Scorpius' belly. The sounds she made were so foreign, too high-pitched. I didn't even enjoy watching the bounce of her breasts as much I thought I would. It was all just so…different.

I opted to close my eyes and focus on the feelings I enjoyed, which was mostly just the hot, wet pull of her channel. We'd finally achieved a rhythm and pace that felt natural. It was familiar but not the same as…

Huh. Maybe the problem was that I kept comparing her to Scorpius.

The second problem was that just then, the door opened… to reveal Scorpius.

 _Shit!_ _I'd completely forgotten to place the wards._

I realized somewhat too late that I probably should've stop my rocking. I should have thrown my blankets over her to cover her nakedness, all while shouting at Scorpius to leave because _fuck off, mate, can't you see I'm busy?_

That would have been the polite thing to do. But I found myself both surprised and ashamed at how turned on I was at the notion of not only getting caught in the middle of a fuck, but by the person whom I'd been fucking as well.

So there went common courtesy, right out the window. Selfishness and poor sense prevailed as it so often did with me. I kept my pace, and gave her a solid grind every few thrusts. I couldn't contain my guttural moan, and noted that Macie's breath hitched on each grind as well.

 _Interesting._

The sex had gotten better – at least for me – as soon as Scorpius showed up.

To her credit – or perhaps to her moral demise, whichever – Macie barely let her own pace falter. She was clearly startled to see another person enter the room, but seemed as interested in stopping as I was. She recovered from the shock of the intrusion faster than I did, however.

Without slowing her ride, she smirked and breathed out, "Come on in, Malfoy. Looking for tips? I know how you love to take notes."

 _So the girl has a bit of an exhibitionist side, eh?_

Before I can formulate anything to say without making the current situation even more gauche, Scorpius answered smoothly, "Don't worry about me, Macie, I'm a quick study. And this isn't my first lesson with Albus."

I was surprised at his casual, almost smug tone. I whipped around to look at him again and saw that his stare was heated, staring straight at me. He dropped his gaze to my hips and I watched him trace my lines and Macie's lines and the point where our lines met.

At first, for a wild moment, I panicked that he was angry about this, despite discussing this possibility before and agreeing that it wouldn't affect our arrangement.

I also couldn't deny the immensely pleasurable lurch in my gut that resulted from being watched with such intensity.

But Scorpius only smirked and dropped his bag on the floor and began to peel his robes off, still watching us heatedly.

I had a strange moment of gallantry, made even more ridiculous by the fact that we still hadn't slowed our rhythm, and panted to her, "He's just – he'll leave… if you want him to."

Macie snorted, and I tried to reassure my ego that her eyes rolling back into her head for a moment was due to pleasure from a particularly brutal snap of my hips and not derision at my lame attempt at chivalry. _I'm no Gryffindor, Macie, you know this._

"I don't care what you boys are into. You're obviously a thing." She arched lithely, showing herself off to us, and giggled when the motion forced my angle to change and dragged a startled gasp from me.

"Stick around, Malfoy. Hell, join in if you want." Her grin was wicked. It occurred to me that a girl in the middle of getting fucked probably shouldn't be capable of coherent sentences, let alone be able to taunt my best mate. I pulled her legs from where they were wrapped around my hips, her heels digging into my ass, and forced them up my chest over my shoulders. It bent her nearly double and distracted her from making any more comments, snarky or otherwise, at Scorpius.

She was too busy hissing and clawing for purchase on my arms, my chest, my shoulders, anywhere she could reach just then. I could just hear Scorpius muttering warding spells over the door.

 _At least he had his head screwed on straight, horny or not._

Seconds later, I felt a warmth radiating onto my back and realized that Scorpius was standing way closer than necessary if he were just interested in taking notes, as Macie had sarcastically suggested, which it appeared he obviously wasn't. During my exchange with Macie, Scorpius had stripped off his shirt, and, judging by the shuffle I was hearing, his trousers were getting tossed away as well. I abruptly felt his hands sliding up my sides and up over my shoulder blades. My arms were straining with the burn of maintaining Macie's weight so I set her back down on the bed, but lowered myself to keep the angle that was making her moan and bite her lip.

Scorpius, still wearing his underwear but nothing else, pressed himself close over my arched back. I felt kisses getting pressed along the juts of my spine, fingers tickling up my sides, then up over my pecs. I couldn't hold back the startled whine when he rubbed his fingertips over my nipples and my resulting twitch fucked up our rhythm. I felt his chuckle more than I heard it, that deep, sexy rumble that no one else has heard; it only came out when he was hot like this.

We settled into a pleasant tempo. Not fast or hard, just a steady glide that we both enjoyed but didn't drive for the end too fast. Luckily Macie seemed perfectly content to simply feel what I was giving her, rather than make much effort to give anything back. It seemed absurd that I'd consider this blatant, one-sided approach to our fucking lucky, but I'd realized that my real interest in this situation mostly hinged on Scorpius. If she wanted to zone out with her happy noises and run her hands through her hair and swipe at her own nipples, fine by me.

I struggled to look over my shoulder, so Scorpius helped me out by curling over my back and managing to give me a lingering, honeyed kiss, the sweetness of it belied by the rough grind of his rigid length, still clothed, against my ass. I tried to push back against him without interrupting the pace for Macie. I didn't want her realizing that I was prioritizing her about as much as she was prioritizing me.

But then he backed up entirely. I was suddenly chilled as his heat was removed from my back and my skin itched with goosebumps, as if straining for his touch again.

"You know you need to be careful, Albus," he said. His voice was too loud for the room, too steady for the situation. "I can tell she's tight, you know she won't be able to take it."

Macie and I both glanced at him, standing there calmly next to the bed. He was looking at me with a small knowing smile, still looking annoyingly put-together.

But then my stomach abruptly did a flip that had nothing to do arousal and I swallowed thickly. _Shit, of course he'd be worried._ My pace slowed almost to a crawl. "Don't worry, mate, I got this."

 _Barely._ I'd barely kept it together. The knot was larger than it should have been; I hadn't been paying close enough attention to keep it completely at bay, and I'd allowed myself to revel in Scorpius' strokes and kisses far too much.

Macie looked vaguely annoyed that Scorpius had intruded on her daze, and even more so that my thrusts had become soft and shallow because of it.

"What the hell is he on about?" She panted, failing to keep the quiver out of her voice even as she tried to convey her irritation, and I looked down at her. Her chest was still heaving but her eyes looked wary, like she wasn't entirely sure anymore that she should have been so casual in agreeing to let Scorpius stay.

I couldn't say I blamed her for the sudden confusion and anxiety. Do threesomes typically involve one party simply standing around giving verbal reminders to another party about potential physical health risks in the heat of the moment? Doubtful.

And yet, there he was. Scorpius, in all his near-naked, smirking glory, flat-out patronizing me while I was mid-thrust. I should have been mortified or insulted but instead all I could think about was leaning in to lick along that tendon in his neck.

Fortunately, I kept my head and resisted that urge, but I realized that he was right. I hadn't planned to knot Macie so I didn't think I'd need to worry about bringing it up, although I can't avoid the conversation now.

 _Thanks, Scorpius. What the hell happened to not risking anyone seeing or experiencing the knot?_

Never let it be said that Scorpius Malfoy, geek extraordinaire, can't be a saucy little fuck when it suits him. I could tell Scorpius was thrilled with the awkwardness he'd just caused but he saved the day anyway.

He turned to Macie and reached out a hand, splaying it lightly on her belly. "Is this okay?" He asked quietly.

She just stared at him for a moment, possibly confused at his earnest interest in her consent, before nodding.

His smile was brilliant, and he expressed his appreciation to her for allowing his touch with a few teasing strokes just below her belly button with his thumb. Her pelvis ticked against mine and the movement seated me just that much deeper. We both gasped and stared wide-eyed at Scorpius.

"There are rumors about us, Macie, I'm sure you've heard them. Can we trust you with the truth? Your eyes and ears only, no one else," he said. His tone was light, but his eyes were stony. He kept up the soft strokes along her abdomen with his left hand and then lowered himself until he was on his knees on the floor next to the bed.

Macie and I froze altogether. Pinned together mid-stroke and utterly still.

 _What the fuck is he doing?_

Scorpius quirked an eyebrow at her and continued to lean in toward her mound. When she didn't object, he twitched a tiny smile before making quite the show of pressing his tongue flat over her clit. She shuddered and gasped as he gave her a long, scraping lick. His hand, previously just providing gentle strokes, had stilled and was instead holding her down. I'm not sure if he was pinning her for his benefit or mine, but I'm grateful for the effort. I was too shocked to move but my previously smoldering arousal just flared to raging, and I didn't need her jolting me to release too soon.

I took a few steadying breaths and willed the tightening in my knot to pull back.

He turned his head just enough to lean his cheek against her quivering thigh, which was yet again wrapped around me. Looking straight down onto his head I couldn't see much of what he was doing but I could tell from Macie's expression and uneven breathing that she was in utter disbelief that S _corpius Malfoy was going down on her while she was still impaled on another cock,_ but she seemed pretty damn ecstatic about that particular turn of events.

After what must have been a few quick, teasing kitten licks based on what I could see of his movements, Scorpius made another long, slow pass and her moan ended on a roughly bitten off, " _Fuck_ , Malfoy."

He huffed out a quick laugh before latching on to her clit and sucking. His jaw was still wedged against her thigh, his temple pressed just above the base of my cock and my heart hammered. Her clenching and shuddering ripples over my cock.

 _Fuck. How does breathing work again?_

Our predicament got even more troublesome when he shifted around a bit and, taking full advantage of our mutual stunned immobility, and began licking and sucking at where we were joined. Both Macie and I made sounds we would probably never admit to outside of this room. He was nipping simultaneously at her outer lips and one of my flooded, throbbing veins. He covered the minor sting with a kiss and more dragging licks over both of us.

I had to close my eyes and bite my lip almost to the point of making it bleed when he began sucking and tonguing at my knot, my willpower almost completely faltering. _Pull the pressure away from the knot, Potter, you got this. Just rein…it…in._

Scorpius' other hand slid up the back of my left thigh. His knuckles dragged against my hole on the way forward, which earned him a sudden twitch that I was sure he was proud of. He gathered my balls in his palm and gently tugged. I hissed, not realizing how close I had been, but now that I did, I couldn't tell if I was glad he'd prevented this heavenly torture from ending too early, or irritated that he'd stopped my first orgasm jointly caused by a fluttering quim and a sucking mouth at the same time.

Scorpius mercifully pulled away from both of us and stood up, licking his lips and breathing a bit heavily. He was smirking that insufferably sweet smirk of his.

"Like I was saying before. There are rumors, are there not?" He was looking at me initially but directed the question to Macie, who seemed to have been holding her breath.

"So you mean –" She started, shakily. She dragged one arm up over her forehead while her other went back to cupping her breast. She cleared her throat and tried again.

"I've heard… I've heard some Slytherin girls mention in the changing rooms that they've heard from Slytherin guys that you two… you guys have…" She seemed at a loss for words. I couldn't blame her, struggling to pin down what she'd heard; she didn't know the word for it.

Also, she still had my cock sunk within her, that might have been a distraction, too.

Scorpius took a seat on the bed next to her, allowing his right hand to smooth sweetly along her thigh, neither suggestive nor teasing, just comforting. He took mercy on her confusion. "It's called knotting," he said matter-of-factly, as though he were explaining the theory behind a spell to a younger student. "Knot with a 'k'. Canines do it when they mate. Albus and I noticed it after Craglin pulled that shit on us. And now I guess some wandering eyes in the showers are accompanied by some loose lips, as well."

"Dumb thing to focus on," I pouted, not sounding as calm and collected as I'd been hoping for.

"I hardly think we're the only boys in this school intrigued by male anatomy," Scorpius said dryly, his smirk not quite chasing the fondness from his eyes as he looked up at me. "Especially when that anatomy has an added bit the other boys don't have."

He scooted a bit closer to the edge of the bed and placed his hand on my belly, pushing me back. I assumed he was just trying to get me to lean a little, but Macie completely unwound her legs from my hips - a welcome relief, honestly - and pulled off altogether. She swung her legs behind her and then crawled forward to the end of the bed, staying relatively eye-level with my cock.

"See? Right here, this…" Scorpius was saying, taking hold of me and running his thumb along the small swelling that rings my dick near the base. He made a show of stroking it just the way I liked, and Macie looked entranced, especially as a particularly nice tickle from his hot breath gave me a gloriously deep throb and I felt the knot swell just a bit more.

Macie gasped and then breathed out an excited laugh. "Bloody hell, so those rumors actually are true! How big does it get?"

"Big enough that it could seriously hurt you if he doesn't control it," Scorpius said, trying to be stern without alarming her. "We can contain the knot to an extent, we can come without knotting, but it's tough. We have to be careful."

For the first time since she started peeling of my clothing nearly an hour prior, Macie looked not just excited, but predatory. She grinned wickedly. "I want it."

Scorpius shook his head, leaning in briefly to kiss her shoulder to bring her attention back to him and way from my knot. "You do not want a dick plus an additional bulge. You'll get hurt. And if he were to knot you, he'd be stuck inside you until the knot released. You would be stuck here, and there would be nothing we could do until the swelling went away."

 _Way to kill the mood, Scor,_ I thought savagely. Admittedly I wasn't terribly into her, but I wasn't into scaring her out of my dormitory either, especially when neither of us had come yet.

"I wasn't planning on knotting you," I assured Macie quickly, feeling annoyed and embarrassed. "I've kept it under control this whole time and I plan to continue keeping it at bay if you can bring yourself to ignore this awkward intermission and agree to get back to it with me."

"Just a quick teachable moment!" Scorpius exclaimed, smiling. "Knowledge is power. Knots are potentially dangerous."

She stared between us for a few long seconds before throwing her head back and laughing.

Not what I imagined would happen. This morning had gotten strange.

"You two are mad. I can't believe it's actually true! And Craglin did this to you? Did he mean to?" She was joining Scorpius in his geek-out rather than rejoining me in fucking and I was suddenly feeling ludicrously left out.

"We don't think he knew what wolf trait we'd get stuck with, but I guess that's neither here nor there now," Scorpius answered, as casually as if they were sitting in class discussing a group project. "As far as we know, it's really permanent."

"So have you fucked each other with it?" She asked, eyes alight with a curiosity that's genuinely more scholarly than horny.

"Oh, Merlin, no," Scorpius retorted quickly. "We'd probably bleed to death. The rest of our anatomy isn't built to accommodate it. We've busted together but never knotted inside each other."

I felt my erection begin to flag at their absurd nerding-out – _at a time like this, no less_ – so I made a show of readjusting my stance and began pulling at my cock while purposely avoiding the knot.

"Hey, I promise I won't tell anyone," she said, picking up on my irritation. "It's just… crazy. And wicked cool. It's like you guys are naturally ribbed." She reached out a tentative hand toward me. "May I?"

I stopped my stroking but didn't allow her to take me completely in hand. Instead, I took a step closer to the bed again and held my cock pressed up against my belly with just the base exposed to her. I nodded, and she gently started tracing her fingertips along the thin knot. I took a deep breath. _Steady, Potter…_

"There's nothing I can say that'll get you guys to let me experience this, is there?" She said quietly, entranced, rubbing my knot between her fingers, then pressing her knuckles against it repeatedly in firm swipes.

"No," Scorpius and I both said together. She sighed, mock disappointed, but the look in her eyes was accepting.

"Well then, let's get back to what we were up to before, yeah?" She said, now leaning forward to let her tongue follow the path her fingers have blazed along my knot, while her hand dropped to fondle my balls.

"Oh, twist my arm if you must," I huffed, relieved, and my moan cooled my gentle sarcasm. My eyelids dropped closed at her talented mouth.

I dropped my hand, allowing her to take charge of my whole cock. I had a feeling that if I only gave her access to the knot, she'd try her damnedest to make it swell.

While I preferred Scorpius for the sole reason that he was Scorpius, I couldn't deny that the girl knew how to give head. I resisted the urge to pull her head down over me faster, and instead clenched my fists at my sides and looked over at Scorpius next to me, who had gotten up from the bed and was dropping his underwear with his back turned to me. He bent all the way over, giving me a mouthwatering view of his long pale legs and tight bum. He was close enough to me that I gave his ass a slap and he twitched, straightening instantly and rounding on me with fire in his eyes and a low growl on his lips. His kiss was all tongue and he roughly scraped his fingernails over my scalp. With his moans in my mouth and Macie's tongue on my dick, I was worried I'd not only come too soon but also that I wouldn't be able prevent the knot. I pulled back from both of them, panting.

"Alright, enough," I whispered hoarsely.

Macie had a deadly gleam in her eye. "Make me, Potter." She watched me carefully, staring me down as she moved forward again to swipe her tongue against the head of my cock again.

I stepped forward to gently push her shoulder and she let herself fall backwards onto the bed, now in her original position with her legs spread and her arms splayed lazily above her head, watching me heatedly. I grabbed both her thighs just above her knees and pull her roughly forward, lining up and sliding balls-deep in her slick, tight channel in one single thrust. She gasped and whined at the intensity of the movement, but while I intended to give her time to readjust to the intrusion, she immediately began a fast, circling grind against me, showing much more effort than she'd been putting in before.

 _Glad you finally decided to show up, Macie._

I almost jumped when I felt hands on my hips, slowly sliding forward and down over the tops of my thighs, gripping my muscles briefly, then back up again to tickle my belly button before pulling back around over my ass, where I got a sharp, stinging smack. Almost instantly afterwards, I felt Scorpius suddenly pressed against me. His rock-hard cock was lubed and pressed against my crack, and he slid it under my ass, brushing my hole as he pushed forward until his cockhead is jabbing the back of my balls. I could feel his knot building, already twice the size of mine and throbbing subtly larger with every one of his thrusts.

He hadn't prepared me to take him anally so he settled for a good old fashioned intercrural rut instead. I'd take it happily.

I adjusted my stance to close my legs a bit more, giving Scorpius a bit more friction. He wrapped his arms around me and pressed his lips to my shoulder, sighing in appreciation.

I could feel my peak racing towards me. Macie's keening told me that she was damn close too. Her thighs started quivering beneath my palms. I kept a firm grip on her just above her knees, spreading her a bit wider and I could feel her body starting to clench.

"Albus," she begged. "Give me the knot. Please!"

I shook my head. I was too close now to knot anyway. It needed time to build and I'd successfully chased down a climax without allowing it to form.

"Too late," I panted, almost feeling sorry about it. "But Scorpius is knotting now, you'll still get to see it."

She seemed momentarily confused but I started moving faster and slammed against her harder, and she lost track of whatever she'd been about to say.

She came moments later, a breathless cry tearing from her throat as she arched and ground desperately against me. My own peak followed seconds later, her rippling contractions pulling me over the edge along with her. I'd almost lost track of Scorpius, who was still behind me, still thrusting quickly into the small space of my thighs. I nearly lost my balance as I pulled out of Macie and had to spread my feet to avoid knocking us all over.

This of course jostled Scorpius out of his thrusting but he didn't seem to mind, close as he was; he pulled back from me willingly. I crawled onto the too-small bed next to Macie and quickly turned to watch him. I looked down at Macie, whose breath was coming back to her, just in time to see her eyes widen as she caught sight of his cock.

"Holy _fuck_ ," she moaned, shocked. "Is that…? Merlin, you weren't kidding, there's no way I could have taken that. _Shit_."

Well, it wasn't like Scorpius hadn't warned her, because he had. We watched him together, and in turn he watched us watching him. His hand was flying over his wet cock, but between the blur of his movements, it was possible to see his large, purpling knot at his base. Macie whined a bit.

"Here's the thing," I began softy. "Knotting can be dangerous if done with a partner, but it has its perks…"

Scorpius seemed to have lost the will to keep himself standing and he paused long enough to pull himself onto the foot of the bed and settle himself back on his heels.

As he took his cock back in hand, I continued. "See, orgasming off a knot lasts almost a solid five minutes."

Macie – previously so absorbed in watching the glide of Scorpius' hand, the heaving of his chest, the rolling of his hips – managed to jerk her gaze away and stared at me, dumbfounded.

"Five minutes," she repeated breathlessly. "You fucking cum…for _five minutes?_ "

"Just about. And it's messier than usual, too," I said and returned to watching Scorpius again.

He always had a cocky, shit-eating grin on his face whenever he watched me fall apart like this, so I thought it was only fair that the tables were turned. I couldn't help but admire the view. He had his head tossed back, jaw clenched, eyes shut tight. He was cradling his balls in one shaking hand and still stripping his cock with the other. More precum leaked from his tip and he gathered it in single motion without breaking his rhythm, his cock and hand both thoroughly glistening.

He brought his head forward and opened his eyes just a bit, just enough for me to see that his pupils were fully blown, almost nothing of his gorgeous silver irises visible now.

 _Fuck, he's a thing of beauty._

"Albus…" he whimpered raggedly. " _Fuck, Albus…!_ "

"Yeah, boy," I whispered to him, leaning toward him. I knew exactly what he was feeling just then, that glorious tightening. That dam that was seconds away from breaking open.

"C'mon, Scorpius, tear that knot."

He groaned piteously, but managed to maintain eye contact, just like we always did. We always tried to avoid throwing our heads back, refused to let our eyelids slip shut as we came. I absolutely loved getting wrecked by the closeness and vulnerability of staring each other down through a knotting orgasm. It was indescribable.

His first throb shot a string of cum onto my arm and knee. His moan turned into a gasp, which turned into growl that ended with a hiss of my name, and then he was totally lost to it. The furious pumping of his hand almost couldn't keep up with his hips' involuntary thrusting and load after load of cum. He rocked for several long, glorious seconds, trying not to blink away from me as he crashed through the first waves.

"Bloody _hell_ ," Macie whispered next to me, her eyes glued to Scorpius' writhing form. I nearly jumped, I'd honestly forgotten about her for those long seconds. She was wide-eyed and looking slightly horrified. She definitely wasn't used to this kind of performance, this amount of cum, or certainly, this level of intimacy. There was honest-to-goodness trust and love here between Scorpius and me, this wasn't just a quick boff in a broom closet like most of the older students tried for between classes. I'm not surprised she was disconcerted by a display of genuine devotion.

And then the jealousy and irritation about her being there reared its ugly head in my chest. This wasn't for her. No one aside from myself should have the privilege of watching Scorpius Malfoy come so hard he looked like he was about to turn inside out.

Scorpius couldn't take it anymore and I couldn't hold it against him. He fell forward, breaking eye contact with me, and braced his weight on his shaking left arm while he continued to pump with this right, his hips still stuttering, cries and grunted swears continuing to fall from his lips. I moved forward and pulled him farther up the bed, and he didn't fight me. Macie quickly got off the bed to make room for him and then resettled herself at the foot of it, eyes still glued to Scorpius.

He let himself fall onto his back, still nearly sobbing as he continued to ride out the tsunami. He was cresting those waves again and again, rendered completely helpless.

His stomach and chest were drenched with sweat and cum, but he just kept it up. I glanced at his knot, still flushed dark. He was shivering head to toe now, whimpering my name like it was the only word he knew. His hips continued to strain up into his hand.

I settled myself next to his writhing form and whispered some of the dirtiest things I'd ever thought about him in his ear, and he sobbed and turned his head to me blindly, taking my tongue in his mouth almost lazily while he whined through another cycle of climbing, cresting and falling.

I pulled away to watch him some more; he was just so irresistibly gorgeous when he fell apart. He was still coming, painting across his own body in warm, jagged streaks and I dove for a cum-stained nipple. I heard an awed whisper of " _Fuuuck"_ from the other end of the bed but found it was easy enough to ignore her. I nipped along his shaking torso and started lapping at his twitching, cum-drenched abs, now clenched marble-hard during his release. I only retreated when he almost punched me in the jaw with his furious wanking.

He finally sighed heavily; I knew that sigh. I've _had_ that sigh. It was the one we got when our bodies released us from its cyclical orgasmic grip and just let us ride through the waves. It was a sigh of the most intense relief. Knotting was always so overwhelming that it was a hugely welcome break when our bodies finally give up the chase for more.

His rhythm slowed and steadied bit by bit. He was groaning almost in discomfort now, so overstimulated but still not quite ready to stop. There was always just that much more pleasure left that we could wring out of ourselves, even when our bodies started to twinge and burn.

"Gah, _fuck!_ " Scorpius spat out almost angrily, eyes screwed shut. With a few more shallow swipes of his erection, he finally twitched his hand away, clenching and unclenching his hand over and over, trying to shake out the severe cramp. Then he slumped boneless on the bed, sweating and panting and absolutely sopping in his own release.

"Albus," he croaked dazedly. I leaned in to kiss him and he returned it weakly for a moment before his lips went slack against mine. I pulled back to see that he'd passed out.

I heard Macie's long trembling exhalation from the foot of my bed. She was curled up on her herself, folded almost catlike with her legs pulled up tight together, her breasts pressed onto her folded arms. She looked enthralled.

"Yeah," I said simply, looking back down at Scorpius. "That's knotting. He'll be hard for another half hour at least before the knot finally dies down, and probably be passed out for several more minutes."

My selfish desire to hurry Macie out grew exponentially. I didn't want her to be here when he woke up, dizzy with ecstasy. Part of me already felt that we'd crossed a line by letting her watch a knot at all, like that should have been something we should've just kept between the two of us, but what's done was done.

"We'd appreciate it if this didn't get out, Macie," I said, trying to be firm without being unkind. "We're not interested in being anyone's novel lay, and we also don't want to get carted off to St. Mungo's for what I'm sure would be many embarrassing and painful attempts at reversing Craglin's Permanency Charm."

She sat up suddenly and said, "Of course, Albus," sounding surprised that I'd even imply that she was a gossip. Thankfully, it appeared that she not only understood our need for privacy overall, but was aware that it was time for her to take her leave of us as well. She stretched and retrieved her wand to cast a Contraception Charm over herself, then began dressing, smiling serenely. With a few curlicues of her wand that tamed and re-styled her hair, she was put together and looking class-ready in barely a minute. She approached the bed again and looked down at the slumbering Scorpius with a gentle smile on her face. I was slightly surprised and…grateful.

"I promise I won't tell anyone," she said earnestly, and I believed her. "Thank you for showing me, that was – it meant a lot to me, I didn't realize how incredible and intimate it would be. You boys really have something. And I don't just mean the knot. You have each other, in such a beautiful way."

And that abrupt surge of respect was the strongest feeling I'd ever had for her. I swallowed thickly.

"Thank you, Macie," I said quietly.

"Sure thing, Albus. Thank _you_ for a great time." She winked and giggled, and I quickly seized my wand to undo Scorpius' wards before she left our dormitory, closing the door behind her.

I wasn't as good at making warding charms as Scorpius was but I reapplied what I could to the door anyway, before coming back to the bed and scooping him up in my arms, content to just hold him until he awoke.

I was secretly thrilled that she was gone. It felt more right than anything had felt all day. It was just the two of us now, just as it should've been.

Scorpius was still down for the count for another several minutes but I couldn't resist the urge to nuzzle and kiss him gently. He slowly woke to my ministrations, with my hand threading through his hair, cradling him and holding him close. I didn't want to miss sharing in Scorpius' post-knot euphoria.

"There's my boy," I whispered in his ear.

His tiny smile was rapturous; there were no worry lines in his face, no tension in his shoulders. That boneless feeling that took over our freshly-knotted bodies always turned us languid and heavy. I wanted to feel his sated muscles smooth out under my fingertips, while pulling long, lazy kisses from his lips. He drunkenly lifted a shaking hand to cup my face and sighed blissfully into my mouth.

We spent nearly an hour snogging and cuddling, forgetting the world even existed outside of us. There was nothing better than being with Scorpius in these quiet, tender moments when he was slowing coming down from his high, satisfied and sweet under my touch.

When he began to become more lucid – which I could tell by his wandering hands – I realized that I needed to say something. I selfishly let him suck a bruise just above my collarbone while his fingers stroked down along my side, tickling. My resulting shiver and happy sigh earned me a low chuckle and couple teasing thrusts of his still-hard cock against my thigh. I managed to catch his attention.

"Hey, about…all this," I said, not entirely sure how to start this.

He stopped his sucking and raised his head, watching me.

"That whole thing with Macie was… it was weird, mate," I admitted, running my hand down his thigh and hiking his knee over my hip. "I'm glad for the experience if for no other reason than to be able to say… that I don't think I want it to happen again."

Scorpius looked surprised for a moment, then recovered and teased me, "That bad, eh? You seemed like you enjoyed it."

I scoffed, massaging his scalp with my other hand and his head drooped back down, pressing his cheek firmly against my chest.

"It only got good after you showed up, honestly," I said. "It was pretty awkward at first and I couldn't stop thinking about you, and how different it was with her, and how much _better_ and more in tune you and I are with each other, and…"

I looked down as I felt him shift around enough to look up at me. The look in his eyes cut off my rambling.

I was equal parts elated and frightened at the realization that he was looking at me with… something much deeper than just friendly affection.

"You were amazing," I whispered, heart suddenly hammering. "And I felt so petty because I was jealous and annoyed that she got to see you that wrecked. And it made me realize that I don't want her again. I'm not sure I want _any_ girl anymore."

He was starting at me, unblinking. Looking desperate for me to continue.

I took a deep, shuddering breath. _C'mon, Potter, say it. You're ready._

"I only want you, Scorpius. Just…you."

Scorpius surged up and kissed me roughly; it was the kind of kiss we hadn't shared in a while. The kind that scorched itself into my memory, like the one we'd shared just before he allowed me to take him our first time in the Room of Requirement.

He pulled back just enough to pant raggedly against my lips, whispering urgently, "Let me hear you say it, Albus. _Please_ , I need to hear you _say it_."

I knew what he wanted. I knew what _I_ wanted.

"I love you, Scorpius." And the admission made me feel triumphant.

He practically sobbed against my lips, stealing another quick, hard kiss before pushing himself up off my chest so that he was looking me dead in the eye.

"I love you, too, Albus."

My face hurt with my smile and I was suddenly either laughing or weeping my joy. I pulled him down and then we were kissing like we needed it to live. Maybe we did.

Is this what perfection felt like? Being in love with your best friend in the whole world, and having that love returned to you in equal measure? I could barely stand it, but I found that I was perfectly happy to be this overwhelmed, delirious with what I felt just then. We kissed until we could hardly breathe. When we caught our breath, it was lost again on ecstatic laughing and moans around more open-mouthed kisses. The world just fell away.

We continued uninterrupted for what felt like hours. Slowly, we returned to ourselves but with the added warmth and giddiness that came with the acknowledgement of our feelings.

To absolutely no one's shock, our snogging and revelatory admissions of love have gotten me rock-hard, my knot swollen almost to full size. Since I hadn't knotted with Macie, my refractory period was a matter of minutes. Scorpius, on the other hand, wouldn't be getting hard again for days. Small price to pay for the best orgasm a body can reasonably experience, but it meant that he wasn't getting aroused by making out with me, and I felt more than a little pathetic being all hot and hard, pressed against the thick, warm length of his thigh while he was still drained and content.

He pulled away to smile at me, an easy, happy smile that floated to his lips, softening his gaze. "I love you. A lot." He said easily, confidently. I couldn't have stop my blush even if I'd wanted to.

"And I love you," I said, pressing more kisses and gentle nips to his neck. "Fuck, I love you so much."

He laughed happily and pulled away, sitting up. "Alright, let's get you cleaned up, I seemed to have spread the love a bit too much."

Indeed, I was covered in Scorpius' cooling seed just as much as he was. It was getting uncomfortably tacky on my skin and I was about to grab my wand to clean us up when Scorpius caught my hand and pulled me up.

"No magic. We clean the old-fashioned way."

"With tongues?" I asked hopefully, only half-joking.

He laughed an easy, carefree laugh. "You can knot in the shower. That way we don't have to clean twice. And I'll keep you from slipping and falling."

That was a good point. I'd never had a knotting orgasm where I could remain upright. My knees always liquified the second it hit so we'd never attempted shower sex for fear that we'd both crack our skulls and die.

I stood up and followed him, watching the hypnotizing sway of his hips as he crossed the room and disappeared from view through the adjacent bathroom. I heard him turn on the water moments later and then he appeared back in the doorway, watching me. He smirked approvingly at my stiff cock, then ran a finger down his chest, scraping off a dribble of his own cum.

I froze mid-stride as he curled his finger into his mouth. "Want some?" He tempted.

 _Yes, I do, thanks._

Despite initial misgivings when we'd first started our messing around all those months ago, I'd since found that I actually enjoyed licking his cum. Or maybe I just like licking Scorpius and I accepted this as part of that. Either way, I was quite content to step up to where he was still lounging against the doorframe and press my mouth to his sticky pec. He exhaled blissfully as I gave him a long, dragging lick.

"C'mon, you," he sighed into my ear as a I continued to nibble and kiss along his chest and neck. "I want some of yours."

He reached between us and gave my cock a few gentle strokes before releasing me and walking toward the shower, which was steaming. How could I turn down an offer like that?

 _~ fin ~_


End file.
